The World’s 85 Richest People Own as Much as the 3.5 Billion Poorest

[Ed Anger]

I would like to strangle Games Workshop customers at least.

[jimmy olsen]

I liked the guys with the political commissars.

The Imperial Guard.

[fhdz]

Space Marines are fascinating, but if I were ever hardcore into WH40K miniatures, I'd have to go with Orks.  They're like the Red Army '45, but more disciplined.

Oh, I'd go full-on Ultramarines.

[Habbaku]

I was always a Tyranids fanboy. 

[Razgovory]

I liked the guys with the political commissars.

The Imperial Guard.

Nerd.

[The Brain]

I would like to strangle Games Workshop customers at least.

The Emperor protects.

[Ed Anger]

I would like to strangle Games Workshop customers at least.

The Emperor protects.

[Siege]

It is not my fault lazy people are poor.
They should work harder.

[jimmy olsen]

The number of rich people is now down to 80, and the number of plebs is up to 3.6 billion. It took the 388 richest people to equal the poorest half, just four years ago.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/meet-the-80-people-who-are-as-rich-as-half-the-world/

Meet The 80 People Who Are As Rich As Half The World

7:01 PMJan 18 By Mona Chalabi

Eighty people hold the same amount of wealth as the world's 3.6 billion poorest people, according to an analysis just released from Oxfam. The report from the global anti-poverty organization finds that since 2009, the wealth of those 80 richest has doubled in nominal terms — while the wealth of the poorest 50 percent of the world's population has fallen.

To see how much wealth the richest 1 percent and the poorest 50 percent hold, Oxfam used research from Credit Suisse, a Swiss financial services company, and Forbes's annual billionaires list. Oxfam then looked at how many of the world's richest people would need to pool their resources to have as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent — and as of March 2014, it was just 80 people.

Four years earlier, 388 billionaires together held as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the world.

Thirty-five of the 80 richest people in the world are U.S. citizens, with combined wealth of $941 billion in 2014. Together in second place are Germany and Russia, with seven mega-rich individuals apiece. The entire list is dominated by one gender, though — 70 of the 80 richest people are men. And 68 of the people on the list are 50 or older.

If those 80 individuals were to bump into each on Svenborgia, what might they talk about? Retail could be a good conversation starter — 14 of the 80 got their wealth that way. Or they could discuss "extractives" (industries like oil, gas and mining, to which 11 of them owe their fortunes), finance (also 11 of them) or tech (10 of them).

There might be some quiet voices in the room, though, because 11 of the wealthiest people on the planet were simply born into their money (19 others inherited their wealth and then made it grow). The remaining 50 names on the list, according to Forbes, are self-made billionaires.

Oxfam notes that global wealth inequality is increasing while the rich get richer. If trends continue, the organization projects that the richest 1 percent of people will have more wealth than the remaining 99 percent by 2016.

Here's the list of the 80 people with as much wealth as the world's poorest 3.6 billion people:

[CountDeMoney]

Proof capitalism works.  Yay for capitalism.

[Admiral Yi]

the wealth of the poorest 50 percent of the world's population has fallen.

I wonder why that happened.  Fall in the price of gold maybe?

[MadImmortalMan]

Yay QE.

[mongers]

the wealth of the poorest 50 percent of the world's population has fallen.

I wonder why that happened.  Fall in the price of gold maybe?

Or maybe the wealth was 'stolen'?

[Admiral Yi]

Or "misplaced."  Or "spent."  The possibilities are "endless."

[CountDeMoney]

Or "misplaced."  Or "spent."  The possibilities are "endless."

It certainly couldn't have been redistributed upwards, what with gravity and all.