Wealth gap continues to widen

New research by the charity Oxfam shows the world has grown $67 trillion richer in just 15 years; however, this so-called newly accumulated wealth has become increasingly concentrated.

According to the charity’s latest research, 62 individuals now have the combined wealth of the world’s poorest 50%, or more specifically, 3.6 billion people.

This continually increasing concentration of wealth is the most startling aspect of a much wider global wealth gap revealed by the new research by Oxfam. Between 2000–2015, the world got $133 trillion wealthier (equivalent to about an extra $19,000 for each person on the planet), but the wealthiest 1% took $68 trillion of this increase – almost half – for themselves, an average of $762,700 each.

“It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world’s population owns no more than a small group of the global super-rich – so few, you could fit them all on a single coach,” said Oxfam CEO Mark Goldring.

This American era of favoring only the rich needs to be eradicated. The billionaires need to start paying their fair share in taxes, instead of watching idly by as some Americans live off of a measly $2 a day. Of the list of big issues that need to be tackled in 2016, corporate greed should be at the top.

Working Americans need to make a livable wage and with billionaires and Wall Street grappling up the wealth it makes it extremely difficult for middle class families to get by. Right now, the economy only seems to work for and only for the top 1%.

The result of corporate greed is America becoming a country with the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any other major country on Earth. This unfairness is not only deplorable, it shows how corrupt our economy truly is.