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Widening inequality GAP

The world’s richest 62 people now own as much wealth as half of the world’s population, according to a report by the Charity Oxfam.

Report stated:

  • Super-rich individuals saw an increase of 44 percent since 2010, taking their cumulative wealth to 1.76 trillion US Dollar equivalent to the total owned by 3.5 billion of the world’s poorest people.

  • Tax havens were helping corporations and individuals stash away about 7.6 trillion USD, depriving governments of 190 billion USD in tax revenue every year.

  • The report calls for urgent action to deal with a trend showing that 1% of people own more wealth than the other 99% combined.

  • The wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015, despite an increase in the global population of 400m.

  • In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people increased by $500bn (£350bn) to $1.76tn.

  • In 2010, the 388 richest people owned the same wealth as the poorest 50%. This dropped to 80 in 2014 before falling again in 2015.

Solution in the report states:

  • A crackdown on tax dodging;

  • Higher investment in public services

  • Higher wages for the low paid.

  • Priority should be to close down tax havens, increasingly used by rich individuals and companies to avoid paying tax and which had deprived governments of the resources needed to tackle poverty and inequality.

Oxfam:

Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organisations working in approximately 94 countries worldwide to find solutions to poverty.

Aim:

  • Oxfam’s programmes address the structural causes of poverty and related injustice and work primarily through local accountable organizations, seeking to enhance their effectiveness.

  • Oxfam’s stated goal is to help people directly when local capacity is insufficient or inappropriate for Oxfam’s purposes, and to assist in the development of structures which directly benefit people facing the realities of poverty and injustice.

  • Oxfam works on trade justice, fair trade, education, debt and aid, livelihoods, health, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, conflict (campaigning for an international arms trade treaty) and natural disasters, democracy and human rights, and climate change.

Values:

  • The right to a sustainable livelihood

  • The right to basic social services

  • The right to life and security

  • The right to be heard

  • The right to an identity

Oxfam in India:

  • Money was granted by Oxfam in 1951 to fight famine in Bihar.

  • It is estimated that, over the course of the droughts and famines, 2,400 tons of milk was bought by Oxfam and at the height of this was feeding over 400,000 starving children and mothers.

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