62个人拥有世界上的大部分财富

AS IT IS 2016-01-20 62 People Own Most of World's Wealth 62个人拥有世界上的大部分财富

The richest 62 people on earth now have the same wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion, according to a report from Oxfam.

Five years ago, the majority of wealth was in the hands of 388 individuals. As the global population increased by around 400 million people, the wealth of the poorest half of the world has fallen by 41 percent - a drop of about $1 trillion.

That means more money, assets and wealth shifted to fewer people.

Oxfam is an aid organization working to fight poverty and hunger around the world. The group reported that women are more affected¹ than men by inequality. The majority of low paid workers around the world are women. Just nine of the richest 62 individuals are women, the aid group says.

It said the differences between the very rich and everyone else has widened over the past 12 months. It said Oxfam predicted last year “the 1 percent would soon own more than the rest of us.”

That happened a year earlier than expected, in 2015, the report said.

The use of tax shelter

Oxfam considers tax shelters for the wealthy the biggest problem.

The group said “rich individuals and companies” hide their wealth in countries where they can pay less tax on their earnings². This is tax money that governments need “to tackle poverty and inequality.”

“It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world’s population owns no more than a few dozen super-rich people who could fit onto one bus,” said Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International’s Executive Director.

The report said about $7.6 trillion of individual wealth is kept in “offshore³” banks. They give the wealthy a rate of return on their investments that is higher than the economic growth rate in many countries.

Oxfam said taxes on the wealthiest income would add an extra $190 billion to governments every year.

“As much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is estimated to be held offshore, costing an estimated $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year,” it added.

“This is enough money to pay for healthcare for mothers and children in Africa that could save 4 million children’s lives a year, and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school,” it continued.

The report comes a few days before the World Economic Forum⁴ opens in Davos, Switzerland. The WEF is a non-profit organization. It invites about 2,500 business leaders, politicians, thinkers and journalists to discuss issues like world poverty and economic growth.

Talk among world leaders “about the escalating⁵ inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action,” the report says.

“The world has become a much more unequal place and the trend is accelerating. We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top.”

Oxfam noted⁶ that had inequality within countries not grown between 1990 and 2010, an extra 200 million people would have escaped poverty.

It said governments should “recover the missing billions lost to tax havens” to pay for healthcare, schools and other public services for the general public.

Governments should move minimum wage rates “towards a living wage” and tackle “the pay gap between men and women.”

Byanyima added, “The richest can no longer pretend their wealth benefits everyone – their extreme wealth in fact shows an ailing⁷ global economy. The recent explosion in the wealth of the super-rich has come at the expense of the majority and particularly the poorest people."

Oxfam said global wealth was calculated by Credit Suisse Global Wealth Datebook (2013 and 2014) and Forbes’ billionaires list  published in March.

Not everyone agrees with the report

The Institute for Economic Affairs in London called the numbers in the report “meaningless and misleading.”

Mark Littlewood, director general of the IEA, said that, “global capitalism⁸ has eradicated⁹ poverty and generated prosperity in the developing world at an unprecedented¹⁰ rate.”

Tim Worstall, a Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute in London, and a blogger for Forbes magazine, disputed the Oxfam report.

What the Oxfam report is “complaining about isn’t very important and we’ve already solved it anyway,” he said. “We don’t actually need to do anything therefore, need no public policy over something we’ve already solved. ... Global demographics are such that the global labor¹¹ force is going to shrink from now on. Thus the return to labor will rise. We’re done.”

Words in This Story

inequality -- adv. unfairness, favoritism toward one thing, a lack of fairness

dozen ?-- n. 12

offshore – n. definition

escalating -- v. going up or higher, increasing in height

concrete ? -- n. a building material that begins as a liquid and dries to a solid

accelerating -- v. going faster, increasing in speed

minimum ?-- n. the lowest or least amount

prosperity ?-- n. thriving, gaining, increasing in wealth or comfort

demographics -- n. the categories of a population that show  age, income, education, etc.? 

1 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

2 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

3 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。

4 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

5 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

8 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

9 eradicated   

画着根的

参考例句：

• Polio has been virtually eradicated in Brazil. 在巴西脊髓灰质炎实际上已经根除。
• The disease has been eradicated from the world. 这种疾病已在全世界得到根除。

10 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

11 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。