Wealth inequality grows.

[crankedup]

The global wealth gap continues to grow at a rate which could see the top 1% exceeding the total wealth ownership of the remaining 99%. More startling is this may occur within our lifetimes or a few decades time.
Marx prediction that just a few giant Corporations will fuel and supply and own the World needs isn't that fanciful it seems.

uk.news.yahoo.com/top-1-richer-rest-world-031552893

[RacerMike]

The thing that the BBC, and other members of the media seem to very cleverly omit from this is that pretty much anyone in the UK earning over £42,000 (in the higher tax band) is in the top 1% of world wealth! In fact, anyone in the UK is in the top 10%!

https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/how-r...

Unfortunately, the statistics have been hijacked as a way of having a go at the top 0.1% (i.e. billionaires). So somewhat amusingly, people commenting on these articles and throwing their arms up at the injustice of it all are actually the biggest hypocrites of them all!

[Maxf]

I often hear of the 1% - but what does this actually equate to?

Are the 1% the mega rich, CEOs, business owners etc or are they (when looked at on a global scale, accounting for the huge amount of poverty in the world) comparatively 'normal' folk with half decent jobs in first world countries?

- and my question was answered before I posted it!

[R8VXF]

Maxf said:

I often hear of the 1% - but what does this actually equate to?

Are the 1% the mega rich, CEOs, business owners etc or are they (when looked at on a global scale, accounting for the huge amount of poverty in the world) comparatively 'normal' folk with half decent jobs in first world countries?

Best I can work out for this country is based on numbers from 2k8 but it works out to roughly £150k pa for a single earner. Add 30% for a 2 income household.

[iphonedyou]

Who cares?

As ever, it's using a relative metric to denote the position of the few that bears very little influence on the absolute position of the remainder. Emotive bks.

[RacerMike]

R8VXF said:

Best I can work out for this country is based on numbers from 2k8 but it works out to roughly £150k pa for a single earner. Add 30% for a 2 income household.

For this country yes, but globally (which this latest article refers to), it's considerably less. As per my previous post, 'top 1%' equates to £42,000 for a single person household which is probably the majority of journos at the BBC!

[crankedup]

The study was under the auspices of Oxfam, when the President of USA and other World leaders begin to publicly discuss their concerns regarding the issue you can be sure its not an imaginary situation. Unfortunately the World leaders are only talking, likely fearful of backlash from the wealthy hitting their politics. We can forget the references to those earning 42k + this report concerns the Global wealth inequality.
It will be interesting to hear what comes out from the Leaders chin-wag this week.

[sidicks]

R8VXF said:

Best I can work out for this country is based on numbers from 2k8 but it works out to roughly £150k pa for a single earner. Add 30% for a 2 income household.

Aren't you confusing income and wealth?

[McWigglebum4th]

crankedup said:

The study was under the auspices of Oxfam, when the President of USA and other World leaders begin to publicly discuss their concerns regarding the issue you can be sure its not an imaginary situation. Unfortunately the World leaders are only talking, likely fearful of backlash from the wealthy hitting their politics. We can forget the references to those earning 42k + this report concerns the Global wealth inequality.
It will be interesting to hear what comes out from the Leaders chin-wag this week.

Do you earn over £42K?

I really hope you don't

[crankedup]

iphonedyou said:

Who cares?

As ever, it's using a relative metric to denote the position of the few that bears very little influence on the absolute position of the remainder. Emotive bks.

With respect :

Alternately its called 'bury your head in the sand'. If you have children and Grandchildren, like myself, you should be aware and have some concern over the issue, if only for your siblings. I say that with respect that most posters in here do have an interest and sensibility over major issues. The 'little influence' to which you refer is naive, who do you believe controls major Global assets, it is this that is of concern.

[crankedup]

McWigglebum4th said:

crankedup said:

The study was under the auspices of Oxfam, when the President of USA and other World leaders begin to publicly discuss their concerns regarding the issue you can be sure its not an imaginary situation. Unfortunately the World leaders are only talking, likely fearful of backlash from the wealthy hitting their politics. We can forget the references to those earning 42k + this report concerns the Global wealth inequality.
It will be interesting to hear what comes out from the Leaders chin-wag this week.

Do you earn over £42K?

I really hope you don't

Can you explain to me what you mean by that comment and what on earth brought you to post it!

[iphonedyou]

McWigglebum4th said:

Do you earn over £42K?

I really hope you don't

Again, it's wealth being referred to here rather than earnings. But it does highlight just how daft this argument is. We're not talking huge sums here - $2.7m wealth to be in the top 1%.

[iphonedyou]

crankedup said:

With respect :

Alternately its called 'bury your head in the sand'. If you have children and Grandchildren, like myself, you should be aware and have some concern over the issue, if only for your siblings. I say that with respect that most posters in here do have an interest and sensibility over major issues. The 'little influence' to which you refer is naive, who do you believe controls major Global assets, it is this that is of concern.

Random capitalisation notwithstanding, I'll do my bit by providing my children and grandchildren with the skills and abilities I myself was equipped with from a young age. They'll be just fine, without any artificial and ultimately entirely arbitrary wealth transfer from the 1% to the 99%.

Again, using relatives rather than absolutes in this regard is emotive bks.

ETA: I see your concern doesn't actually lie with wealth disparity then, but with those directly controlling the nebulously termed 'global assets'. Can you elucidate?

Edited by iphonedyou on Monday 19th January 17:00

[jonby]

RacerMike said:

The thing that the BBC, and other members of the media seem to very cleverly omit from this is that pretty much anyone in the UK earning over £42,000 (in the higher tax band) is in the top 1% of world wealth! In fact, anyone in the UK is in the top 10%!

https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/how-r...

Unfortunately, the statistics have been hijacked as a way of having a go at the top 0.1% (i.e. billionaires). So somewhat amusingly, people commenting on these articles and throwing their arms up at the injustice of it all are actually the biggest hypocrites of them all!

Indeed !

Statistics hey - an article in February I read suggested that to be in the 1% of highest earners in the US, you need to earn $500k p.a but globally, just $35k p.a. (c. £23,000 per year) is needed

[crankedup]

iphonedyou said:

crankedup said:

With respect :

Alternately its called 'bury your head in the sand'. If you have children and Grandchildren, like myself, you should be aware and have some concern over the issue, if only for your siblings. I say that with respect that most posters in here do have an interest and sensibility over major issues. The 'little influence' to which you refer is naive, who do you believe controls major Global assets, it is this that is of concern.

Random capitalisation notwithstanding, I'll do my bit by providing my children and grandchildren with the skills and abilities I myself was equipped with from a young age. They'll be just fine, without any artificial and ultimately entirely arbitrary wealth transfer from the 1% to the 99%.

Again, using relatives rather than absolutes in this regard is emotive bks.

Your perhaps missing the broader point, we all provide for our families, of course we do our best for them. The point about the wealth inequality is the fact that wealth = power, it is as much the power transfer as it is the money. A small example within recent years was Branson taking on other airlines or wishing to be responsible for the National Lottery. Both examples his Company sought to betterment of working people but could easily have gone an opposite ethos. There is nothing emotive in raising reality to further public attention and, imo, Oxfam have made a worthy contribution.

[Guybrush]

It's quite possibly the left 'softening up' for (further) tax rises. (Bearing in mind, in the UK, the 'top' few percent contribute vastly to the tax take.)

[McWigglebum4th]

Guybrush said:

It's quite possibly the left 'softening up' for (further) tax rises.

BINGO

What will we do about some bloke sitting in a penthouse in monaco who has never set foot in the UK?

We will increase petrol by 5 pence a litre


That will stuff the 1%

[FredClogs]

The good news is that quite a few of the 1%, and a very large number of the top 0.1% seem to realise just how ridiculous, unsustainable and unhealthy the current situation is and are quite busy trying to give their money away or create as much employment as possible, I suspect the ones who will resist will be the ones with great inherited wealth who don't understand the value of money because they never earned it and some of the s who hang around this forum and like to play billy big balls with life's good fortune.

[mondeoman]

Where has al the QE money gone? Follow the money, as always. And it hasn't been a trickle down, not by any stretch, When you get to the point where 80-odd people have 50% of the worlds wealth, something isn't quite right.

[Axionknight]

mondeoman said:

Where has al the QE money gone? Follow the money, as always. And it hasn't been a trickle down, not by any stretch, When you get to the point where 80-odd people have 50% of the worlds wealth, something isn't quite right.

QE is used to buy debt or Government bonds, it isn't created and then given out to folk on the street.