The wealthiest 62 individual is said to have as the same wealth as the half of global population compared to 388 individuals five years earlier, Oxfam said in a report released before of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting which was held in Davos, Switzerland. It uses the data from Credit Suisse from October for the report, which urged the government to take action to reduce such inequality. Almost half of the very wealthy individuals are from the United States, seventeen from Europe, and the rest from countries including China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
“World leaders’ concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action — the world has become a much more unequal place and the trend is accelerating,” Oxfam International’s executive director, Winnie Byanima, said in a statement accompanying the report.
Oxfam is calling on governments to take action which will help reverse this trend. Workers should be paid living wages while the gap with executive rewards should be narrowed. It calls for an end to the gender pay gap and the need for compensation for unpaid care as well as the promotion of equal land and inheritance rights for women. Oxfam also wants the governments to make a stand on lobbying, thereby reducing the prices of medicines. It also suggests that wealth be taxed rather than consumption and that progressive public spending be used to tackle inequality.
