The Rich Get Richer, Richest 0.1% Of The Population Have Increased Their Wealth By As Much As The Poorest 50%
The richest 0.1% of the world’s population have increased their combined wealth by as much as the poorest 50% – or 3.8 billion people – since 1980, according to a report detailing the widening gap between the very rich and poor.
The World Inequality Report, published on Thursday by French economist Thomas Piketty, warned that inequality had ballooned to “extreme levels” in some countries and said the problem would only get worse unless governments took coordinated action to increase taxes and prevent tax avoidance.
The report, which drew on the work of more than 100 researchers around the world, found that the richest 1% of the global population “captured” 27% of the world’s wealth growth between 1980 and 2016. And the richest of the rich increased their wealth by even more. The top 0.1% gained 13% of the world’s wealth, and the top 0.001% – about 76,000 people – collected 4% of all the new wealth created since 1980.
As wealth inequality continues we will have a majority of people who are poor and angry and a minority of people who are very rich and happy, and you only have to look at human history to see what will happen next...
More info in the article;
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/dec/14/world-richest-increased-wealth-same-amount-as-poorest-half
LEVERAGE. Wealth inequality increases this little thing called leverage.
As fewer and fewer people control more and more of the economy, they can leverage the economy is ways to benefit themselves and also to control or destroy it.
The first time in recent history that we saw this leverage was in the late 1980's after Ronald Reagan slashed taxes on the wealthiest people from 71 percent to 28 percent. The rich became richer.
Despite popular myth, the 80's economy was never that good. On average there was not as much growth in the 80's as there was in the 70's or 90's.
Lower growth means lower general demand. More money in the hands of the rich means the money has to go somewhere. The money went into the stock market and housing, leveraging and distorting both markets.
By 1987, the stock market had risen so fast that it was bound for a fall. The greatest stock market crash in American history occurred in 1987.
In the 1980's the real estate and housing market boomed at a faster rate than general inflation than ever before. Then, came the housing collapse, the Savings & Loan collapse, and a very long seven year period of recession, slow growth, and finally "jobless recovery."