That's the shocking and sad economic reality of our world. The global financial and political elite have so much control over the lives of everyone on the planet, and they gather at Davos, Switzerland this week. The banksters, Wall Street wolves and tech titans are the richest on the planet who have seen their wealth increase by $2.5 billion per day in 2018.
Source
That's astounding when you think about it. Is this the world we want to have? These figures come from Oxfam's report titled "Private Good or Public Wealth". The analysis also mentions how the top 26 billionaires own as much wealth as the world's poorest 3.8 billion.
Since the 2008 global financial crash, things haven't been corrected. The rich have merely gotten richer, with the amount of billionaires doubling in 10 years. Meanwhile, average families struggle to stay afloat as costs rise and their jobs don't pay more. Paul O'Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns at Oxfam America said:
"The economy we have today is fundamentally inhuman."
"Inequality is not inevitable, it's a political choice."
O'Brien points out the $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich that came from the Republican Party and President Trump:
"The recent U.S. tax law is a master class on how to favor massive corporations and the richest citizens. The law rewards U.S. companies that have trillions stashed offshore, encourages U.S. companies to dodge foreign taxes on their foreign profits, and fuels a global race to the bottom that benefits big business and wealthy individuals."
"The only winners in the race to the bottom on corporate tax are the wealthiest among us. Now is the time to work towards a new set of tax rules that work for the many, not the few. We need economic, political, and tax reform to level the playing field if we want to restore prosperity and opportunity for all, including women, girls whose needs are so often overlooked."
Here's another stat on the ultra rich, there are 2,200 billionaires in the world, and their wealth has increased by 12% in 2018. Another is that that dozen richest Davos attendees in 2009 have increased their wealth by $175 billion in the past 10 years since (except George Soros who lost 61%).
Source
Global billionaire wealth has also grown from $3.4 trillion in 2009, to $8.9 trillion in 2017. The past 10 years of a bull market economy has created even more wealth disparity:
Source
While the poor get fleeced in taxes, the rich who have more get to scheme and scam their way into paying a lesser percentage of taxes. That's not proportional. Some are so devious as to pay $0 taxes. I'm not for taxes, but if everyone is being coerced into it, then at least make it proportional so the poor aren't left getting by on scraps while the rich buy up more of the planet.
Even a 0.5% tax increase to the richest one percent, which they can obviously handle, would provide $418 billion more. Oxfam says this "alone would ensure an education for the 262 million children currently not in school and provide healthcare that could save the lives of more than three million people." But the problem with taxes, is that it's in the hand of the government. I doubt that money would go towards the children.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
If you appreciate and value the content, please consider: Upvoting, Sharing or Reblogging below.
me for more content to come!
Like what I do? Then consider giving me a vote on the Witness page :) Thanks!
My goal is to share knowledge, truth and moral understanding in order to help change the world for the better. If you appreciate and value what I do, please consider supporting me as a Steem Witness by voting for me at the bottom of the Witness page.
The poor get fleeced elsewhere as well en masse. If you want to escape the Federal Reserve's corrupted inflation spree, what is one to do? Buying property is the main way Average Joe can try to escape central banking.
Except they can't, because to buy a house you have to take out a loan, and by the time you've paid off all the interest, you just paid more than the value of the entire property several times over.
If you get a loan at 5% APR. How much interest have you paid after 30 years?
Take out $100,000 loan for 30 years and you owe back $432,000. This money doesn't even exist; it was never printed. It literally can't be paid back on a macro scale.
2008 showed us that property isn't even a safe asset anymore. Meanwhile, the value of crypto has been doubling every year under Moore's Law. It's only a matter of time before people figure out where to put their money for the long haul.
I am not even sure crypto is safe anymore. The majority of crypto can only be earned by trading fiat. Guess who has all of the fiat power?
The ones in power are the ones holding the coins, and the coins can be created by literally anyone on the planet out of thin air. The price going up doesn't force diehard fanatics to sell. This is where HODL culture comes from. If central banking tries to buy out crypto that's going to make thousands of the smartest libertarian (anti-government) cryptography experts on the planet billionaires. What do you think these people are going to do when their coin becomes co-opted? They'll make a newer, better coin, that is even harder to buy out.
Fiat is powerless. Fiat is dead tech that hasn't evolved for 100 years. No one is going to want anything to do with it once the tipping point is reached.
Yup more money needs to be printed to fill up the money supply in order for all money created with interest to be paid back, it's an endless incremental loop. What madness!
They use much if the monopoly welfare scheme to install stronger controls on the herd. They are tyrants and the masses need to realize not only they are but that they rely on our cooperation.
Yes, in the end, the finger is pointed at us for enabling all this bullshit. Where do they get their money? We buy things, and play money games they invent to try to get richer, and they just get richer while we lose money, those of us who plays their deceptive games.
The problem is not inequality, it is the system. The political and financial elite needs to accumulate all that money in their hands to reduce inflation. If they put all that money to circulate immediately the economy would collapse. They have a lot of money but they can't spend it, they simply accumulate it as a way to exert power over others, and to direct the whole system.
As long as the system remains broken, the richest will become richer simply by controlling state mechanisms, as they do, and the poor will be poorer. Economic crises can only increase this difference, unless there is a real change.
yes, the financial system is a corrupt money-magic manipulation fantasy game that we all buy into and get fucked over playing.
Not a very funny game at all, but I think a lot of people like to "get fucked" part, because it is safer to be fucked than to be free.
True that! Freedom is scary, responsibility... people prefer the chains :/
The 26 richest people only have 3.8 billion between them? When did that Oxfam report come out, 1995? The Rothschild dynasty alone has significantly more than that. In fact, one estimate put their worth at over half of all the world's wealth, although that sounds like a sweaty panic to me. Still, the very very richest people have fortunes that cannot be accurately tallied by outsiders, probably on purpose, and merely by virtue of the fact that their fortunes are distributed throughout assets around the globe (which is a wise financial policy, not putting all those eggs in one basket).
But here's my main comment: what business is it of yours what others rise to accomplish? You could too if you were willing to dedicate your mind singly to the task with great perseverance. And it would be A-OK if you did. Great fortunes in themselves are not evil. Money is not evil. Having money only amplifies whatsoever characteristics of vice and virtue a person already has. So its not the object that does the evil, it's the person using it. As a matter of fact, I have known lack of money to influence persons to commit acts of immorality moreso than abundance of money.
Now, hold on, I do believe I understand the ungirding gist of this "life's not fair" article, aside from the usual covetousness. It is this, and you can correct me if I'm mistaken: you believe that all the riches these people have managed to accumulate should be stolen away from them and evenly distributed around the world so that we were all equal, right? I tell you, neighbor, that if such a thing were ever to happen, it would render money itself of absolutely no value. At that moment there would, in effect, be no such thing as money, until some enterprising gentleman or lady created or discovered a new medium of exchange. For money, just like gravel, only has value if it is unevenly distributed. (Imagine, if all the gravel on earth were evenly distributed across the globe: what would it be good for?) Besides, people are not all equal, because of the way they choose to think and pattern their lives, and therefore, it is utterly impossible that wealth should be equally enjoyed.
Sorry, neighbor, but your plaint against capitalism falls a country mile short of common sense. But I do commend you, in all sincerity, for putting your time and thoughtfulness into the subject. Peace be with you.
Not equal enjoyment, just equal opportunity. The current economic system robs the layman of that opportunity, ensuring that rich keep getting richer no matter what happens to the economy. That's not fair.
This reply is meant to be constructive, not argumentative. I preface it that way, because I want to ask the question, what exactly is the system you're referring to? I could point to a number of groups or institutions and say, "This is the problem over here," but what system is there? By saying we have a system, it raises in my mind the assumption that there is some kind of inescapable framework to this world which all have no will to disobey. Do you mean our system of government? Our tax codes? Our bureaucracies? Are you referring specifically to the fact that large corporations can afford to lobby our congress and that congressmen and women are given cushy corporate positions after their terms of service have ended? Or do you refer to those more shadowy elements such as the Council on Foreign Relations or even the secret societies? Presuming that you are an American, what exactly is preventing you from getting rich?
I know that it is hard for the average person to navigate the complicated legal system, if that is what you mean. But though it is hard, I don't know if there's ever been a time in history when it was particularly easy - easier perhaps, but it always takes effort, focus, and persistence: three things the millennial generation and the one coming after it sadly lack. As for me, I know that I have in times past been the one who prevented myself from getting rich, but I am working to change that, and I believe with a new positive mindset that I am smart enough to overcome any obstacle if I will only continue to apply myself. And I believe for you that you can too.
Well you have covered most of it but I am going to bring up one more thing which is to me the most important; education.
Children are not being raised to be educated, independent, and innovative individuals. This is what makes the "system" feel inescapable. Because when you are being programmed from birth to follow orders, not handle adversity, not think outside the box, not learn how to manage money and run your own business etc, how can we be expected to succeed? How can we undo a lifetime of malpractice by our elders?
I have learned more about myself and the world around me in past 3 years than I did in high school and college combined. That tells me that they are not doing their job. The ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor, coupled with an increase in high school and college graduates supports this.
Our opportunities are passing us by because school has taken away our vision.
Well said. It should be called Public Doctrines Education. It's no surprise when people in power want to stay in power, but for some reason we don't realize that means they may be willing to do anything to accomplish this, including making good (to them) use of all the tools of institution they have access to: including education, media, food supply, public health and health care, and of course the legal system. Although it can be rather intimidating to some, I've found it quite liberating to come to the realization that none of these things are there for my benefit.
The problem is not inequality itself, neither wealth. The problem is that this modern inequality is being created by corrupt means, state favors, and political mechanisms. Do you think there is a free market today? Please.
I agree with you. That is a problem, in my opinion. But it's one that we allowed to happen and continue to allow; therefore, I can only conclude that it must not really be such a bother to most people. In any case, I stand by the comment I left on the article: both the spirit and the letter of the content represent a very dangerous mindset that is intentionally being foisted upon humanity by the very same super-rich people who are controlling everything. That mindset is one which has been trained to beg for collectivism. The elite cabal that wants to control the whole world wants us to beg them for the privilege of being governed to the highest degree, because the best slave is the one who thinks that freedom is too terrible or too costly an alternative.
$8.9 trillion by 2018, 3.8 trillion in 2009, not 3.8 billion...
For literally all of known history, debt / wealth has been a problem. There is a reason why even Islam forbids interest (Mohammed was a trader!).
Interest is indeed a scam that we all buy into and keep feeding :/
The problem is the glaring conflicts of interest most governments have given the support they receive from those with the resources to donate.
Posted using Partiko iOS
It's a big circle, pay for play... welcome to Steem system, same as the old system in many ways :/
It sure would be nice if they could spread the wealth to the rest of us. Gee being a pianist myself I wonder if they could use a piano player LOL thanks for sharing @krnel
Well, they get their money through ill-gotten means in many cases, so yeah sure why not ;)
Another interesting perspective on the global wealth and who sits at the top of it all is from my friend @shepz1 here https://steemit.com/freemasons/@shepz1/the-power-structure-illuminati-soros-or-part-1
I’m in favor of a flat tax; no dodging, exemptions or refunds. The percentage decreases as your income bracket goes up to be fair to both the poor and wealthy. It’s a pipe dream though as it will never go through with the money in politics today.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Yeah, money rules everything, welcome to Steem, old world with a new facelift ;)
Hi @krnel!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 7.350 which ranks you at #60 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 1 places in the last three days (old rank 61).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 241 contributions, your post is ranked at #12.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
Wow..
Posted using Partiko iOS