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"World's 8 richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%" - Oxfam, 2017 "World's 26 richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%" - Oxfam, 2019 Not exactly

"World's 8 richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%" - Oxfam, 2017 "World's 26 richest people have same wealth as poorest 50%" - Oxfam, 2019 Not exactly the most convincing proof of "the widening gap". I'm not saying that the inequality hasn't increased, just that you need a different metric for showing it.

salty_biscuits 8y ago
Looking at the tails is always going to be noisy. Gini coefficient should do.
onetimemanytime 8y ago
Poorest 50% probably have close to zero networth. Maybe some may have some sort of "house," or property, but that's about it. Another good point they make: VAT (sales tax in USA) is over 20% in a lot of countries. That's in addition to income tax, pension (SS) contributions etc etc. Basically, you pay at least 20% tax virtually on everything. The governments usually collect that at the customs point of entry, and then it is passed down to the ultimate buyers.
- vidarh 8y ago
  > Basically, you pay at least 20% tax virtually on everything. This is misleading. Firstly, in most countries with VAT, goods considered basic necessities, like food, tends to be zero rated or have lower VAT rates. Secondly, VAT is only paid on goods and often services you buy, not on e.g. mortgage payments or other debt, or rent (most places). As an example, though at an income well above average, last time I checked VAT raised my effective tax rate by ~4 percentage points, despite the 20% UK headline VAT rate. Very low earners also tends to pay relatively little VAT, as a much larger proportion of their income tends to go to rent or things that are exempt. As a result most poor people pay those 20% (or whatever local rate) at only a small proportion of their overall income. VAT is still a problematic tax, as it has a disproportionately negative effect for poor people once they do earn a bit extra and want to spend it on something not considered a basic necessity (and the categories that are exempt do tend to be quite narrow). It can certainly drive their effective tax rate up well above the headline income tax rate for their income level even with very small proportions of income spent on full rated things. It also causes a "bulge" effect, where low to middle earners sees the largest effect (as high earners tends to invest and save a large proportion of their income; and in the UK and many other places are also more likely to afford to take advantage of a lot of other tax breaks)
- jacquesm 8y ago
  > Maybe some may have some sort of "house," or property, but that's about it. People with a house (of any kind) or property are typically not part of the poorest 50% of the people.
bryanrasmussen 8y ago
The article said "As a result, the report concluded, the number of billionaires owning as much wealth as half the world’s population fell from 43 in 2017 to 26 last year. In 2016 the number was 61." the 43 in 2017 had a link to Jan 2018 article on same subject. Where do you get '8 richest people have the same wealth' from?
- altvali 8y ago
  https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/...

salty_biscuits 8y ago

Looking at the tails is always going to be noisy. Gini coefficient should do.

onetimemanytime 8y ago

Poorest 50% probably have close to zero networth. Maybe some may have some sort of "house," or property, but that's about it. Another good point they make: VAT (sales tax in USA) is over 20% in a lot of countries. That's in addition to income tax, pension (SS) contributions etc etc. Basically, you pay at least 20% tax virtually on everything. The governments usually collect that at the customs point of entry, and then it is passed down to the ultimate buyers.

vidarh 8y ago
> Basically, you pay at least 20% tax virtually on everything. This is misleading. Firstly, in most countries with VAT, goods considered basic necessities, like food, tends to be zero rated or have lower VAT rates. Secondly, VAT is only paid on goods and often services you buy, not on e.g. mortgage payments or other debt, or rent (most places). As an example, though at an income well above average, last time I checked VAT raised my effective tax rate by ~4 percentage points, despite the 20% UK headline VAT rate. Very low earners also tends to pay relatively little VAT, as a much larger proportion of their income tends to go to rent or things that are exempt. As a result most poor people pay those 20% (or whatever local rate) at only a small proportion of their overall income. VAT is still a problematic tax, as it has a disproportionately negative effect for poor people once they do earn a bit extra and want to spend it on something not considered a basic necessity (and the categories that are exempt do tend to be quite narrow). It can certainly drive their effective tax rate up well above the headline income tax rate for their income level even with very small proportions of income spent on full rated things. It also causes a "bulge" effect, where low to middle earners sees the largest effect (as high earners tends to invest and save a large proportion of their income; and in the UK and many other places are also more likely to afford to take advantage of a lot of other tax breaks)
jacquesm 8y ago
> Maybe some may have some sort of "house," or property, but that's about it. People with a house (of any kind) or property are typically not part of the poorest 50% of the people.

bryanrasmussen 8y ago

The article said "As a result, the report concluded, the number of billionaires owning as much wealth as half the world’s population fell from 43 in 2017 to 26 last year. In 2016 the number was 61." the 43 in 2017 had a link to Jan 2018 article on same subject. Where do you get '8 richest people have the same wealth' from?

altvali 8y ago
https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/...