62 Richest People Own As Much As Half The World's Population
The 62 richest people on earth own the same amount of money as 3.5 billion people. This was reported by Oxfam, a UK-based charity organization that aims at fighting poverty. The wealth of these 62 richest people has risen by half a trillion dollars in the last five years. In 2010 it took 388 people to reach that mark.
The gap between the world's rich and poor has been growing at an alarming rate. The richest 1% of the population own more than all of the world's people combined. Many people, especially the middle-classed, have been getting less of the global money pie.
On the other side, the world's poorest are not profiting from economic growth. The daily income of the poorest 10% in the world has gone up by less than one cent every year.
By publishing this report Oxfam wants to persuade world leaders to take action at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. They claim that billionaires and multinational companies are not paying their fair share of taxes. Instead they are parking their fortune in tax havens. The additional taxes could be used for developing programs or health care. In Africa, for example, an estimated 500 billion dollars are in tax havens.
Another report says the world's poverty has fallen by nearly half over the past decade. But more than 70% of the global population still live on 10$ a day or less.
Oxfam does not only fight for equality in today's world. The organization also campaigns for workers' rights to found a union. Equal pay for men and women, as well as minimizing the influence businesses have on governments are also on Oxfam's agenda.
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Words
- additional = more than usual
- agenda = list of problems you want to deal with
- aim = to try to do something
- alarming= something that makes you feel worried or frightened
- amount = how much of something
- billion = a thousand million
- billionaire = person who has more than a a thousand million dollars
- business = company
- campaign = movement, action
- charity = organization that gives money and goods to poor people or helps them in other ways
- claim = to say that something is true
- combined = together
- decade = ten years
- developing = to make something better
- economic growth = when the amount of products and services around the world keeps growing
- equal = the same
- equality = world in which people have the same rights etc...
- especially = above all
- estimated = guess, not calculated exactly
- fair share = what they should
- fortune = wealth, money
- found = start
- gap = difference
- global = worldwide
- government = the people who rule a country
- health care = the service that is responsible for looking after the health of people in a country
- income = the money you get from products you sell or work you do
- influence = the power to change something
- instead = in something's place
- mark = level, number
- minimizing = to make as low or small as possible
- multinational company = company that operates in many countries around the world
- poverty = the situation of being poor
- profit = to be useful or helpful
- persuade = to make someone do something that you think is right
- publish = show to the public
- own = have, possess
- rise = go up
- take action = to do something
- tax = money you must pay to the government according to your income; it is used to pay for health, social services and other things
- tax haven = place where people live or put their money so that they do not have to pay high taxes in their own country
- trillion = 1,000,000,000,000
- UK-based = with its headquarters in the UK
- union = organization started by workers to protect their rights
- wealth = the large amount of money that you have