Govts should act now to narrow wealth inequality and save the world

Eight men own as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people, or half of the world's total population, says Oxfam in its latest report. The report titled "An economy for the 99 percent", released just before the Jan 23-26 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, reflects the horrific global wealth disparity that is being further widened as big businesses and the super rich continue to dodge taxes, lower wages and use their powers to influence political regimes.

Oxfam says that, thanks to new, updated data on the global distribution of wealth, especially in developing countries such as India, it is clear now that the poorest half of the world population owns less wealth than previously thought.

Economies across the world are "channeling" wealth to the super rich at the cost of the poor, with women being most exploited, the Oxfam report says. The astonishing pace at which the super rich are accumulating wealth could in only the next 25 years create the world's first trillionaire. To put things in perspective, a person would need to spend $1 million every day for 2,738 years to exhaust $1 trillion.