Newser – The global charity Oxfam has a new report pointing out that the number of billionaires in the world has doubled since the financial crisis. Specifically, the billionaires’ club has grown from 793 in March 2009 to 1,645 in March 2014, reports CNBC. Oxfam says the rising numbers are another sign of the world’s worsening income inequality, and it breaks down the numbers like so:
- Every 60 seconds: In the last year, the world’s richest 85 people increased their collective wealth by $668 million a day, which roughly equals $500,000 per minute, reports MarketWatch.
- 220 years: Carlos Slim of Mexico is at the top of the list with $80 billion, and Oxfam says it would take him 220 years to spend his wealth at a rate of $1 million a day, reports the Guardian.
- Wealth tax: Oxfam says a tax of 1.5% on the billionaires would raise $74 billion, “enough money to fill the annual gaps in funding needed to get every child into school and to deliver health services in the world’s poorest countries.” (A Forbes writer complains that Oxfam is neglecting to mention that this period has “coincided with the largest fall in absolute poverty in the history of our entire species.”
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Source: Newser
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