Canada’s two richest people shows wealth inequality

The full report to be released today – An economy for the 99 per cent – is part of an annual series.

On a national basis, Oxfam pointed to the case of Kenya.

The group warned that public anger over inequality might cause more political changes.

As Oxfam notes, the populist fury over inequality and stagnation propelled the successful campaigns for the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, and for the election of Donald Trump.

The report has been released ahead of the World Economic Forum to be held this week – where the world’s richest and most influential businessmen and women meet to discuss a host of topics relating to the global economy. This yearly event gathers leaders, experts and activists to discuss important global issues. Last year it was estimated that the cumulative share of wealth of the poorest 50% was 0.7%; this year it is 0.2%.

The eight billionaires have riches equivalent to the wealth of the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people, according to research by Oxfam.

Oxfam bases its calculations on data from Swiss bank Credit Suisse and Forbes.

Leading the pack is the charity-committed Bill Gates, with $75bn he’s honestly trying to get rid of.

Graeme Hart and Richard Chandler have net worths of $8.98 billion and $3.79 billion respectively.

Among those cited in the research, Bill Gates, who tops the list, and Warren Buffett, the world’s third-richest man, are known philanthropists who have pledged to give away most of their wealth.

The only people who aren’t obviously and publicly giving in the billions are Armancio Ortega and Jeff Bezos. Mark Zuckerberg: American chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Facebook (net worth $44.6 billion) 7.

Winnie Byanyima is the executive director of Oxfam International. Many of these problems can be reduced and ending poverty is possible.

Oxfam says that such inequalities “threaten to pull our societies apart” with Oxfam Ireland’s CEO Jim Clarken saying that political consequences are already being felt. Governments should also support corporations that pay fair wages and fair taxes, and which take into account the impact of their operations on the environment.

Supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally against Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore. “Tax cuts for the rich, dismantling protections for workers and punishing refugees and immigrants will only worsen inequality and the suffering of working people”. “But inequality matters and you can not have a system where billionaires are systematically paying lower rates of tax than their secretary or cleaner”, Max Lawson, Oxfam’s head of policy told Reuters. “We can and must build a more human economy before it is too late”, Oxfam wrote in the report. It’s because of this kind of inequality that trust in institutions has fallen sharply since the global financial crisis of 2008, according to Edelman, one of the world’s biggest marketing firms. The company studied the opinions of 33,000 people from 28 different worldwide markets before the start of this years’ World Economic Forum.

Crampton said inequality’s “real bite” in New Zealand was because of a broken housing market, with the rising cost of housing especially hurting the poor. “We’re seeing that companies are really squeezing workers and producers out of their fair share to increase shareholder profits”. Pete Musto adapted it for VOA Learning English using additional Reuters news service material. And since 2015, the richest 1 per cent has owned more wealth than the rest of the planet.