Fewer than 60,000 people – 0.001% of the world’s population – control three times as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity, according to a report that argues global inequality has reached such extremes that urgent action has become essential.

The authoritative World Inequality Report 2026, based on data compiled by 200 researchers, also found that the top 10% of income-earners earn more than the other 90% combined, while the poorest half captures less than 10% of total global earnings.

Wealth – the value of people’s assets – was even more concentrated than income, or earnings from work and investments, the report found, with the richest 10% of the world’s population owning 75% of wealth and the bottom half just 2%.

In almost every region, the top 1% was wealthier than the bottom 90% combined, the report found, with wealth inequality increasing rapidly around the world.

“The result is a world in which a tiny minority commands unprecedented financial power, while billions remain excluded from even basic economic stability,” the authors, led by Ricardo Gómez-Carrera of the Paris School of Economics, wrote.

  • ikt@aussie.zone
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    2 days ago

    Billions of poor people are giving their money every single day to companies owned by rich people, this explains why rich people are getting richer

    Does anyone have any ideas how we can stop poor people from giving their money to the rich? Every time they use Google they are given an electric shock ? Every time someone goes to buy something on Amazon they get personally spanked by a local Jeff Bezos lookalike?

    • MBech@feddit.dk
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      2 days ago

      My proposal is taxing the everloving shit out of the richest people. 50% wealthtax over €20 million (a number I pulled out of my ass, but I think it’s important to not hurt the regular small businesses). If you can’t sell your assets for some reason, the assets are forfeited to be operated or sold by the government, to redistribute the result through welfare and UBI.

      And what about thhe poor billionaires who can’t own more than 20 million euro you say? I don’t give a shit. Let them off themselves if it’s impossible to live with.

      • Devolution@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Rich people will give their money to enrich themselves or to fuck someone over. But giving their money freely to help humanity? Or accept being taxed? They are seriously homicidally resistant to that.

        Off topic, I think billionaires should be required to do the lowest position in their organizations for a month once a year with their net worth assets frozen, their communication with any yes man or enabler being severed for that month, and be forced to live off of that monthly stipend for 1 month and if they get “fired” they cannot retaliate if the firing was in good faith and they lose 65-70% of their stock options for failing to do bare minimum competence.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          We’ve seen them voluntarily do homeless stints. It’s just not the same thing when you know you’re going back to your mansion in a few weeks. Just fucking tax their wealth bracket out of existence.

          • Devolution@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Oh I want them taxed, but like I said, they’d rather watch the world burn than be forced to give a dollar.

            • Fluke@feddit.uk
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              Then don’t take the dollar, take the fucking hand.

              Odds are when asked for the second dollar, it will be a lot more forthcoming.

        • MBech@feddit.dk
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          Then they get imprisoned for taxfraud, and have their wealth confiscated. I no longer give half a shit about those parasites.

      • ikt@aussie.zone
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        1 day ago

        I have to respond to “with at a 50% wealthtax over 20 million euros” because that is the easy answer

        Europe already has a lot of experience with taxing the ultra wealthy

        In 1990, about a dozen European countries had a wealth tax, but by 2019, all but three had eliminated the tax because of the difficulties and costs associated with both design and enforcement.[6][7]

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax#In_practice

        Normally progressives like to point to Europe for policy success. Not this time. The experiment with the wealth tax in Europe was a failure in many countries. France’s wealth tax contributed to the exodus of an estimated 42,000 millionaires between 2000 and 2012, among other problems. Only last year, French president Emmanuel Macron killed it.

        In 1990, twelve countries in Europe had a wealth tax. Today, there are only three: Norway, Spain, and Switzerland. According to reports by the OECD and others, there were some clear themes with the policy: it was expensive to administer, it was hard on people with lots of assets but little cash, it distorted saving and investment decisions, it pushed the rich and their money out of the taxing countries—and, perhaps worst of all, it didn’t raise much revenue.

        https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/02/26/698057356/if-a-wealth-tax-is-such-a-good-idea-why-did-europe-kill-theirs

        Paris (AFP) – Bernard Arnault, the billionaire boss of the world’s biggest luxury conglomerate LVMH, has picked a fight with the French government by suggesting that companies could flee France for the United States to escape a planned tax hike.

        https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20250130-french-luxury-billionaire-sparks-tax-debate-with-threat-to-leave

        And it’s hard because there will always be another country that wants rich people

        • WildPalmTree@lemmy.world
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          Tax transfers to those countries to the ever-loving-shit degree. Want to move money to this tax paradise? Sure. We take 90%. Not on profit. On transfer. Let’s see them work around that. Want to move it to a country that doesn’t have the same rules? Sure. We take 90% of that.

        • MBech@feddit.dk
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          Then they’ll be welcome to fuck right the fuck off, but I absolutely assure you, there is someone willing to start a new company in their place, if the market was previously in the “make you a billionaire” territory, but now the person can “only” accrue €20 million, someone will fill that hole, but that someone won’t be a piece of shit like Jeff Besos, because they won’t be allowed to become that economically powerful. Instead it’ll be 500 smaller companies, all competing for the market.

          What happened to the different european wealth taxes is that it was implemented with loopholes as big as the France-England tunnel, and any rich asshole who didn’t feel like paying taxes, could just transfer it somewhere else, and call it an investment. Instead, tax every single cent they move out of the country at 90%. That way they’re forced to invest their money in the country they’re making their money off of. Maybe give them a rebate if they move it within Europe to facilitate growth across the union, let’s tax that at 45% instead then.

        • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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          If it’s a free market within the country, the vaccuum created by the wealthy leaving will be filled in by smaller business servicing the same industries.

          Big corporations that have wealth concentrating with the top brass and share holders do not add anything of value to the market over cooperatives and other worker owned incentive structures.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          That’s because they left giant loopholes in those laws. Like allowing the ultra wealthy to remove their money from the country. They got that money because of the country, they don’t get to then fuck off and take that wealth out of the country. They’re free to leave, the majority of their wealth is not.

          And poor nobles can cry me a river, sell the assets. Take the stocks too. The entire idea of shareholders running the company needs to die anyways.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      First you need to put the non-rich in charge and prevent them being bought off by the rich. That’s the hard part, but not impossible.