Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks (Cancelling Billionaires Before They Cancel Us):
"In 1987, Forbes identified 140 billionaires. By 2025, the number was 3,028, but more important is the growth in the sheer volume of their wealth.
In 1987, the 140 billionaires owned assets to the value of $295bn between them. Today’s 3,028 have $16.1tn! The last five years have been the worst for seeing the billionaires hoovering up increasing percentages of the wealth being produced in the world.
In 2020, Jeff Bezos was the only billionaire whose wealth exceeded $100bn. By 2025 there were 15, of whom three are worth over $200bn.
In 1976, Paul Getty was the world’s richest man with $6bn. After accounting for inflation, today’s richest person, Elon Musk, is worth ten times more than Paul Getty was in 1976.
In 1987, the 140 billionaires had interests equal in value to 1.3 percent of global GDP, making ‘billionaire-land’ the tenth-richest ‘country’ in the world. By 2025, however, the 3,028 billionaires had over 14 percent of projected world GDP, making ‘billionaire-land’ the third-richest ‘country’ in the world, after the USA and China.
At the current rate of increase in billionaire wealth, we can expect ‘billionaire-land’ to surpass China in 2032 and the USA in 2038!"
Is it pensions (to which we contribute throughout our lives of hard work) & social services that we "can’t afford', or is it the system that puts its attendant billionaires in charge?
