The top 26 billionaires own $1.4 trillion — as much as 3.8 billion other people

The top 26 billionaires own $1.4 trillion — as much as 3.8 billion other people

By Tami Luhby, CNN Business
Updated 4:59 AM ET, Mon January 21, 2019

(CNN Business)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.

Billionaires, who now number a record 2,208, have more wealth than ever before, according to an Oxfam International report published Monday. Since the global financial crisis a decade ago, the number of billionaires has nearly doubled.

The annual study was released ahead of the yearly World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together some of the wealthiest and most influential people on Earth. The 106-page report is meant to call attention to the growing gap between rich and poor.

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.

... https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/20/business/oxfam-billionaires-davos/index.html

Those are some impressive numbers, and here we are with the GOP just having slashed taxes on the wealthy and driving up the national debt while the middle class is increasingly the indentured servant class.

 

Eat the rich and vote democrat.

 

Ironic that a large number of billionaires are from socialist and communist countries. Before the Mexican cartels started moving coke from Columbia there was only one billionaire there. Now there are between 26-30. Capitalism works. Even they know it and aren't dumb enough to distribute their wealth.

 

Nobody give a hoot about the richest when the base have access to the basic necessities of life: food, shelter, healtcare and education.
It's when the rich start acting like the 18th century french nobility and tells the base who are barely making it or starving that they can always eat cake that heads start to roll off. Sadly, we're slowly getting up to that point with the disapearing middle class brought forth by those same rich elite who outsource all of what they can get away with to maximise profits that only them will get to enjoy.

 

Class envy is not an appealing characteristic.

 

Class envy is a motivator... When the game isn't rigged from the start.

 

Or could the headline have been, instead, "3.8 billion people are lazy as f***"?

 

A big bunch of low earners are doing the hardest and shittiest jobs. Some even work multiple ones to make it. Being poor isn't being lazy and being rich isn't being a hard worker. Many rich never even lift a finger to get their money and they don't even manage it themselves.

 

Interesting. California is the Dems petri dish and there is very little middle class left. In spite of our taxes being among the highest, we are known as the poverty capitol of the US. Were you going to make a case that increasing taxes on the wealthy helps the working class?

 

and?

let me give you quick education on economics wealth isn't finite there isn't a limited amount of wealth, wealth is created, one having more doesn't cause another to have less, the rich didn't become reach by making the poor poor

so what you just spewed is irrelevant just propagating envy and class warfare for a political purpose

most of the worlds dictators used that same tactic of class warfare to gain power

 

Jealous?

 

Money is tied to ressources. If you have most of the money/ressources and prefer to maximize profit by exploiting 3rd world workers instead of creating good paying job insuring that those worker can subsist and improve their lifes then you aren't creating wealth for no one but yourself which is the problem. At one point the masses have enough and heads start to roll, see France, Russia, China, Germany and dozen of other countries in the world who went through it. Yea, they replaced some rich morons with communist/Facist dictators. Didn't change all that much for the poor but they got to see their old enemies heads roll.

And yet, if those rich morons had instead reinvested in their own citizens, making sure they could feed, house, heal and educate themselves instead of going for that extra billion, which they'll never or their descendent, get to spend in their lifetime, they would be an head taller and still rich. Look at the state of affordable housing, low skilled salaries (not everyone has the potential to be a doctor or an engineer), healthcare and schools. And before you go all steam ahead blaming the government for those problems, the government ARE THE RICH!

The middle class is quickly becoming the new lower class. I'm middle class and I see my purchasing power diminishing every year. Soon I won't be considered middle class.

 

Not surprised to see a lot of Dem donors on the list....they like the laws and policies that keep themselves rich, and keep the people poor.

 

And... you believe government is the solution, where it takes from the haves and give to the have nots.
Right?

 

It'll be 27, once MacKenzie Bezos gets that divorce finalized..... If she's still into bald guys, I'm in like Flint

Call me, darling!!

 

the main resource the one that creates the most wealth is the human mind and its capability is unlimited we have yet to reach its potencail and everyone has one just some put it to use others don't

 

Wow, 3.8 billion people that half the world's population?!! (Damn?!!)

This inequality issue, is world wide too! And this needs to be
addressed too!

(CNN Business)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.

Billionaires, who now number a record 2,208, have more wealth than ever before, according to an Oxfam International report published Monday. Since the global financial crisis a decade ago, the number of billionaires has nearly doubled.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/20/busin...vos/index.html





Talk about bourgeois running dogs?!!

 

Some, particularly in our financial sector, use their potential to exploit others.

 

“They have more power than monarchies of 1,000 years ago? OH WELL, THE RICH WILL GIVE US CRUMBS, MAGA!”

 

I wonder what could be done to help the situation, especially in today's environment with half of America deluded into thinking billionaires have earned and deserve to keep all of that money. Ideally more people would be paid more for their work and would benefit more from the financial sector. As it is now, the working class tend to be preyed upon by creditors to make more money for the billionaires. Seems like I get some silly credit offer (if not several) in the mail most days. And here we are squabbling over things like the minimum wage and making health care and higher education affordable. Obviously the billionaires are holding the wealth that is needed to make these things happen. It's just a question of how to get it distributed efficiently and fairly.

 

one of if not the most richest man in the word Bill Gates created is wealth not by exploitation and not by consuming any significant amount of tangible recourses
his wealth is contributed to ideas, ingenuity, and creativity
as a matter of fact the private sector biggest wealth creators in the last couple of decades have been in the Tech industry
which the main factor of wealth creation has been the human mind a unlimited resource

 

So what? I do not see any names of these billionaires mentioned nor how they made their money. Truth is more people have been lifted out of poverty over the past few decades than in history. The poor in western world live better than royalty did a couple of centuries ago.

Get over the envy.

 

This seems like a useless "factoid", seeing as how there are African countries where the per capita is around $1000 or less per year. Cost of living and all of that.

 

Gates exploited the original programmer of Windows by paying a trivial amount for the program.

 

Can you document that? Actually 15 of the top 26 are from the USA and none of the others are from "socialist and communist countries". China gave up socialism/communism in favor of capitalism, as you may know.
https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#version:static

Yep, works for the few who are crafty enough or crooked enough.

Right. That, regarding those Mexican cartels, is commonly referred to as "greed".