THE NEED FOR A MORE EQUAL WORLD

Source: Oxfam

Last year saw the biggest increase in billionaires in history, one more every two days. This huge increase could have ended global extreme poverty seven times over. 82% of all wealth created in the last year went to the top 1%, and nothing went to the bottom 50%.

Dangerous, poorly paid work for the many is supporting extreme wealth for the few. Women are in the worst work, and almost all the super-rich are men. Governments must create a more equal society by prioritizing ordinary workers and small-scale food producers instead of the rich and powerful.

1. The world's billionaires are growing $2.5 billion richer every day, while the poorest half of the global population is seeing its net worth dwindle.
2. There are 2,208 billionaires in the world. Since the global financial crisis a decade ago, the number of billionaires has nearly doubled.
3. The combined fortunes of the world's 26 richest individuals reached $1.4 trillion last year — the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion poorest people.

Top 26 (2018 Ranking)

1. Jeff Bezos $ 112B, Amazon (USA)
2. Bill Gates $ 90B, Microsoft (USA)
3. Warren Buffett $ 84B, Berkshire Hathaway (USA)
4. Bernard Arnault , $ 72B, LVMH (France)
5. Mark Zukerberg $ 71B, Facebook (USA)
6. Amancio Ortega, $ 70B, Zara (Spain)
7. Carlos Slim Helu $ 67.1B, Telecom (Mexico)
8. Charles Koch $ 60B, Koch Industries (USA)
9. David Koch $ 60B, Koch Industries (USA)
10. Larry Ellison $ 58.5B, Software (USA)
11. Michael Bloomberg $ 50B, Bloomberg LP (USA)
12. Larry Page $ 48.8B, Google (USA)
13. Sergey Brin $ 47.5B, Google (USA)
14. Jim Walton $ 46.4B, Walmart (USA)
15. S. Robson Walton $ 46.2B, Walmart (USA)
16. Alice Walton $46B, Walmart (USA)
17. Ma Huateng $ 45.3B, Internet Media (China)
18. Françoise Bettencourt Meyers $ 42B, L’Oréal (France)
19. Mukesh Ambani $ 40.1B, Petrochemicals, Oil & Gas (India)
20. Jack Ma $39B, eCommerce (China)
21. Sheldon Adelson $38.5, Casinos (USA)
22. Steve Ballmer $38.4B, Microsoft (USA)
23. Li Ka-shing $34.B, Diversified (Hong Kong)
24. Hui Ka Yan $30.3B, Real Estate (China)
25. Lee Shau Kee $30.3B, Real Estate (Hong Kong)
26. Wang Jianlin $30B, Real Estate (China)

4. The world's billionaires are growing $2.5 billion richer every day, while the poorest half of the global population is seeing its networth dwindle.

5. Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Microsoft's Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg are worth collectively $ 357 billion. This equates to the combined GDP of Andorra, Montenegro, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Kosovo, Macedonia, Malta, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Belarus.