It was interesting to hear, in the midst of the Davos love-fest where the world’s elite get together each year and pat each other on the back for a job well done, that Oxfam released their study stating that by next year the top 1% of humanity would own more than the remaining 99%. (Incidentally, for those interested in the topic of wealth distribution, check out the interesting SocialTrade stack.)
When I first heard this, I kind of shrugged it off, particularly since it was accompanied by a “50/50” pie chart. Then I realized my brain was playing a trick on me. In my head, there was a “split” between the 1% (one side) and the 99% (the other), which matched nicely with the 50/50 pie chart. In other words, my brain was thinking – – ‘what’s the big deal?”
Then I crudely calculated in my head how many people that is, and I expressed it to myself in a different way: if we assume 7 billion people on the planet, that means 70 million of them will have more wealth than 6.93 billion. Now that got my attention, and, I think, puts things into perspective much better. This is the legacy of Obama, Bernanke, Yellen, Draghi, Kuroda, and all the rest of these clowns. In the name of the working man, they have given away the entire planet to the highest echelon. What a bunch of shameless douchenozzles.
