According to the latest Oxfam report, ‘The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all,’ the $240 billion net income in 2012 of the richest 100 billionaires would be enough to eliminate extreme poverty four times over. "We sometimes talk about the 'have-nots' and the 'haves' - well, we're talking about the 'have-lots'." - Ben Phillips, a campaign director at Oxfam
The richest five Americans made almost $7 billion each in one year. That's $3,500,000.00 per hour. The minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 per hour.
The combined net worth of the world's 250 richest individuals is more than the total annual living expenses of almost half the world - three billion people. For every one dollar of assets owned by a single black or Hispanic woman, a member of the Forbes 400 has over forty million dollars.
26,000 Americans who will die this year because they are without health care. In 2010, 50 million Americans had no health insurance coverage.
21 to 35-year-olds have lost, on average, 68% of their median net worth since 1984.
Tax havens hold as much as $32 trillion or a third of all global wealth.
The world's richest 1% have seen their income increase by 60% in the last 20 years.
What is interesting in the figures Oxfam have produced is that they are talking about the global elite's income rather than their wealth assets. This avoids the objection that to direct some of their wealth towards the starving would only be a one-off. Highlighting their income is to draw attention to a continuing stream of wealth. Of course it's not going to happen, but it does show that enough wealth is being produced even today under capitalism to eliminate extreme destitution. This vindicates our contentiont that, by in addition eliminating the waste and artificial scarcity of capitalism, socialism could easily produce enough to provide everybody on the planet with a decent standard of living. Oxfam and the like, seemingly accept the fact the system is rigged in the interests of the rich, so why do they think it can be made to work for the benefit of all? How long have these charities been calling for the same things now? Surely there must come a time when (and now would seem overly ripe) these people can see their calls fall continually on deaf ears? Calling for a return to the poverty of a previous decade is self-defeating for an organisation that claims to want to eliminate it?
In the words of Bertrand Russell, "Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."
The richest five Americans made almost $7 billion each in one year. That's $3,500,000.00 per hour. The minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 per hour.
The combined net worth of the world's 250 richest individuals is more than the total annual living expenses of almost half the world - three billion people. For every one dollar of assets owned by a single black or Hispanic woman, a member of the Forbes 400 has over forty million dollars.
26,000 Americans who will die this year because they are without health care. In 2010, 50 million Americans had no health insurance coverage.
21 to 35-year-olds have lost, on average, 68% of their median net worth since 1984.
Tax havens hold as much as $32 trillion or a third of all global wealth.
The world's richest 1% have seen their income increase by 60% in the last 20 years.
What is interesting in the figures Oxfam have produced is that they are talking about the global elite's income rather than their wealth assets. This avoids the objection that to direct some of their wealth towards the starving would only be a one-off. Highlighting their income is to draw attention to a continuing stream of wealth. Of course it's not going to happen, but it does show that enough wealth is being produced even today under capitalism to eliminate extreme destitution. This vindicates our contentiont that, by in addition eliminating the waste and artificial scarcity of capitalism, socialism could easily produce enough to provide everybody on the planet with a decent standard of living. Oxfam and the like, seemingly accept the fact the system is rigged in the interests of the rich, so why do they think it can be made to work for the benefit of all? How long have these charities been calling for the same things now? Surely there must come a time when (and now would seem overly ripe) these people can see their calls fall continually on deaf ears? Calling for a return to the poverty of a previous decade is self-defeating for an organisation that claims to want to eliminate it?
In the words of Bertrand Russell, "Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."
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