Today is Blog Action Day 2014 #BAD2014 and this year’s theme is inequality #Inequality
Today is Blog Action Day when bloggers around the world post items on the same theme and this year the chosen subject is inequality. Conveniently this week Credit Suisse has published its annual Global Wealth Report.
Among the mass of data, the report tells us that, taken together, the bottom half of the global population own less than 1% of total wealth. In sharp contrast, the richest decile hold 87% of the world’s wealth and the top percentile alone account for 48.2% of global assets.
The report, which calculates that total global wealth has grown to a new record – $263tn, more than twice the $117tn calculated for 2000 – found that the UK was the only country in the G7 to have recorded rising inequality in the 21st century.
Why does inequality matter? Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett explained this really well in their seminal 2009 work “The Spirit Level” which I have reviewed here.