Yahoo Finance 8 Men Have the Same Amount of Money as 3.6 Billion People
Eight men -- including the founders of both Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon.com (AMZN) -- hold the same amount of money as half of the world, according to a report published this week by Oxfam International.
Bucking previous thought, the study found that there's even less money in the poorest half of the world, i.e. 3.6 billion people.
"It is mind-boggling that just eight men own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world's population, but that's the sobering reality of 2017," Paul O' Brien, Oxfam America's vice president for policy and campaigns, said, reports USA Today. "Such dramatic inequality is trapping millions in poverty, fracturing our societies and poisoning our politics."
The eight richest people include Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft ($75 billion); Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) ($60.8 billion); Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder, chairman and CEO ($45.2 billion); Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (FB) chairman, CEO and co-founder ($44.6 billion); and Larry Ellison, Oracle (ORCL) co-founder and CEO ($43.6 billion). CNN Money points out that 89 percent of the 1,810 billionaires worldwide are male.
According to a news release, 70 percent of people inhabit a country where inequality grew the past 30 years.
Oxfam wants leaders to address the inequality or risk public outcry.
"Public anger with inequality is already creating political shockwaves across the globe," according to the same news release. "Inequality has been cited as a significant factor in the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., the election of President Duterte in the Philippines, and Brexit in the UK."
Oxfam determined the richest people data by examining Forbes' billionares list from March 2016 and took the global wealth distribution data from Credit Suisse Global Wealth Data book 2016.
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