Babylon's New Math: 62 = 3.6 BILLION

[Don1]

Babylon-style Plutocratic Capitalism metastasizing wealth inequality rapidly like a Stage 4 Cancer...Nyamming everything in sight...The USA under Obama is Exhibit 1 for this phenomenon

The center cannot hold....so nuff worries ahead....Memba mi tole unnu dat

Just 62 people own as much wealth as half the world’s population: Oxfam

Published: Jan 18, 2016 8:13 a.m. ET

The wealthiest have gained a half a trillion dollars in five years

By
BARBARA KOLLMEYER
MARKETS REPORTER


The wealth divide between the world’s richest and poorest is turning into a Grand Canyon.

Last year, just 62 individuals held wealth equivalent to the amount owned by 3.6 billion people, about half the world’s population. That’s according to a new report by Oxfam published Monday, ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which aims to show just how deep the gulf of inequality has become.

“Oxfam’s prediction — made ahead of last year’s Davos — that the 1% would soon own more than the rest of us by 2016, actually came true in 2015, a year early,” the nonprofit said in a statement.

The wealth of those 62 one-percenters has risen by more than half-a-trillion dollars in the last five years, the report said. At the same time, the total owned by the poorest half has fallen by a trillion dollars.

In monetary terms, that club of 62 has seen its riches climb by $542 billion, or 44%, to $1.76 trillion since 2010. That’s as the less-fortunate half has seen its wealth slide by 41%.

[Rudi]

Yep and I am sure they don't try to influence things.

[Karl]

It is a bit more complex than Bernie alluded...or for that

matter your spin

...Blab! blab! ...I told you so!

It would seem that the 'story' being peddled, that is poverty as represented by no shelter, lack of adequate clothing and food...poor health and perpetual hunger ever present, etc. being the lot of the poor into perpetuity is on the horizon, is the direction along which the World is trending?

...do not think that is the trend!

Commonsense interpretation of facts tells that the days of vast numbers living 'unda tree' or 'innah caves' or 'a walk fi get henny weh' has passed. There is no doubt some persons are still 'unda tree' or 'innah caves' or 'a walk fi get henny han ebry-weh' but the numbers have decreased tremendously. If there is one thing the fast paced development tells it is that living as today's middle-class lives will one day be considered living in poverty!!!

...and yes, if democracy as we know it still exists the richer shall become ever richer! ...yet relative today, the poor shall be less poor!!!

...and if there was anyone thinking that widening of the gap between rich and poor is Obama's fault or his name should be linked with same should realize that has never been and never shall be OBAMA's FAULT!

[Rockman]

prgramnes like welfare etc are designed to keep the poorest among us docile.
Whereas Obama is far better than all his predecessors,admittedly they were not much to begin.
How does the richest among us have their way?They infiltrate the political process,and Obama's appointment to key strategic positions is testimony of it,Govt is abound with their lobbyists!

[Don1]

Seems to me you don't understand the core issues of the accelerating income inequality & wealth gap Karl. The superficial points you raise illustrate that

As to Obama, your apparent pin-up, I wasn't "blaming" him. Obama is a mere temporary (high level) employee. He doesn't run the show. Increasingly the Oligarchs/Plutocrats do. That tiny class doesn't have 4 or 8 year terms...nor do they have to answer to anyone

Dis farrrr bigga dan Lame Duck Obama who is forced to toe a Babylon-friendly line...or else im get whe Kennedy get

[Don1]

Yep and I am sure they don't try to influence things.

of course not

[Don1]

Babylon Financial Shitstem at the core of its corruption

Plutocrats run di cut

Wealth Inequality Rising Fast, Oxfam Says, Faulting Tax Havens
By PATRICIA COHENJAN. 18, 2016


Just 62 people own as much wealth as the 3.5 billion people in the bottom half of the world’s income scale, the charity Oxfam reported on Monday in its annual study of inequality, which found that the gap between rich and poor has continued to widen at an alarming rate. As recently as five years ago, the fortunes of 388 billionaires were needed to reach that halfway mark.

The study — released before the world’s business and government elite gather at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week — noted that a global network of tax havens contributed to the divide by allowing the rich to hide trillions of dollars in assets from their countries’ governments.

“Tax havens are at the core of a global system that allows large corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying their fair share,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, “depriving governments, rich and poor, of the resources they need to provide vital public services and tackle rising inequality.”

Oxfam said publicly available data on some 200 companies — about half of them described by the World Economic Forum as its strategic partners — showed that nine out of 10 had a presence in at least one tax haven, including the Cayman Islands and Switzerland itself.

The banking sector plays an essential role in the tax-haven issue, the report notes — just 50 big banks manage a majority of offshore wealth. At the same time, the financial sector is a prime source of rising inequality; one in five billionaires comes from that industry.

[Don1]

How Plutocrats control Con-gress i.e. The Big Con Job

* Con-gress people's campaign funded mainly by big business = The "people's reps" bought & paid for

* So Big Business' lobbyists are allowed to actually write legislation in their own interest and have it enacted without much, if any review

* Meanwhile the Sheeple look on...ignorant of how the shitstem is corrupted...but busy watching nonsense, Obama's puffery or general propaganda on Babylon TV. Still believing in their "democracy"


How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy

LEE DRUTMAN APR 20, 2015 BUSINESS

Something is out of balance in Washington. Corporations now spend about $2.6 billion a year on reported lobbying expenditures—more than the $2 billion we spend to fund the House ($1.18 billion) and Senate ($860 million). It’s a gap that has been widening since corporate lobbying began to regularly exceed the combined House-Senate budget in the early 2000s.

Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business.

The self-reinforcing quality of corporate lobbying has increasingly come to overwhelm every other potentially countervailing force.
One has to go back to the Gilded Age to find business in such a dominant political position in American politics.

[Don1]

Even Babylon elements alarmed at rise of US Oligarchy

...While the Frogs continue to boil

Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”

Jon Schwarz
July 30 2015, 7:09 p.m.



Photo: Pete Muller/AP


Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday on the nationally syndicated radio show the Thom Hartmann Program that the United States is now an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” has created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.” Both Democrats and Republicans, Carter said, “look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves.”

Carter was responding to a question from Hartmann about recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign financing like Citizens United.

Transcript:

HARTMANN: Our Supreme Court has now said, “unlimited money in politics.” It seems like a violation of principles of democracy. … Your thoughts on that?

CARTER: It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over. … The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who’s just a challenger.