combined fortune of 26 of world's richest people is equal to total wealth of the 3.8 billion poorest people. This startling disparity in wealth is according to report from charity Oxfam. It reported that since global financial crisis in 2008, the number of billionaires in world has doubled. They are also getting $2.5 billion richer every day. This is in stark contrast to world's less fortunate - the poorest half of planet is seeing its wealth slowly shrink as prices of commodities increase, wages are squeezed and land prices and rents rise. Oxfam's report highlights growing gap between the world's rich and poor and the ever-widening gap in wealth inequality.
report says that most of world's mega-wealthy have made their huge fortunes from technology companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook. The world's richest person is Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. His amassed $100 billion fortune is 100 times greater than annual health budget of Ethiopia. Oxfam said it was time to try and redress imbalance in wealth. It recommended taxing income at fairer levels, increasing tax on personal earnings and corporate profits, and eliminating tax avoidance schemes commonly used by companies and super-rich. It said: "In many countries, decent education or quality healthcare has become luxury only rich can afford."
