Note to humanity:
An explosion in extreme wealth is exacerbating inequality and hindering the world's ability to tackle poverty, Oxfam warned today in a briefing published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.
The $240 billion (£150bn) net income in 2012 of the richest 100 billionaires would be enough to make extreme poverty history four times over, according to 'The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all'. The agency is calling on world leaders to curb today's income extremes and commit to reducing inequality to at least 1990 levels.
The richest one per cent has increased its income by 60 per cent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process.
Oxfam warned that extreme wealth is economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive.
Barbara Stocking, Oxfam Chief Executive, said: "We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many - too often the reverse is true.
"Concentration of resources in the hands of the top one per cent depresses economic activity and makes life harder for everyone else - particularly those at the bottom of the economic ladder.
"In a world where even basic resources such as land and water are increasingly scarce, we cannot afford to concentrate assets in the hands of a few and leave the many to struggle over what's left."
Members of the richest one per cent are estimated to use as much as 10,000 times more carbon than the average US citizen.
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