Skip to main content

Jeremy Cherfas

Felix Salmon approves of Oxfam's latest inequality report

1 min read

Along the way, Salmon has this to say:

the world’s billionaires – the richest 2,000 people on the planet – saw their wealth increase by a staggering $762 billion in just one year. That’s an average of $381 million apiece. If those billionaires had simply been content with staying at their 2016 wealth, and had given their one-year gains to the world’s poorest people instead, then extreme poverty would have been eradicated. Hell, they could have eradicated extreme poverty, at least in theory, by giving up just one seventh of their annual gains.

Hang on a minute. Wouldn't the billionnaires need to make that awesome sacrifice every year? Or does the fact the people would slide back into extreme poverty next year not matter?