62 People Are Wealthier Than Half The World’s Population Combined

The gap between the world's richest and poorest just seems to be growing wider, Oxfam shares in new findings. According to Newsweek, Oxfam found that the combined total wealth of 62 of the richest people in the world is $1.76 trillion — the same amount as the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world. This means that in 2015, 62 people were wealthier than half the world's population combined. In 2010, the number was 388 individuals, meaning there's been a 44% increase in just five years. Oxfam reports that global economic inequality is "reaching new extremes," no thanks to the privileged 1% who are benefiting from tax loopholes, including hiding money in offshore funds. "The economy after the financial crisis and the recession is beginning to going to grow again, and everyone takes that to be a positive, but what we're seeing is that this growth, the increased income and wealth, is being captured by the richest," Gawain Kripke, policy director for Oxfam, told Newsweek. "Working-class people and the poor are not benefitting from the growth, so something is deeply wrong with the economy and the social contract in which if you work hard and play by the rules [you'll be rewarded]. It's broken." The study found that the majority of the richest people is made up of 53 men, while women make up the majority of the world's lowest-paid workers. These numbers are no surprise. Last year, Oxfam warned that if the world's richest continued to go unchecked, their combined wealth would overtake that of the rest of the world by 2016. But it's not all doom and gloom. Oxfam says there are ways we can solve this problem, including getting rid of laws that benefit the rich, paying workers a living wage, and promoting women's rights and equality.