They have become so rich, in other words, at our expense.
Think about it .... People blame the wants of the many on the luxuries of the few.
The World Inequality Report (WIR) 2026 shows that about 56,000 people – 0.001% of the global population – corral three times more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. They afflict almost every country. In the UK, for example, 50 families hold more wealth than 50% of the population combined.
The immense wealth of the super-rich translates into significant political power, enabling them to lobby for policies that serve their interests, such as tax cuts and deregulation. This can create a feedback loop where wealth is used to influence the rules, which in turn allows for further wealth accumulation at the expense of the general public.
In 2024, Oxfam’s figures show, the wealth of the world’s 2,769 billionaires grew by $2tn, or $2,000bn. The total global spending on international aid last year was projected to be, at most, $186bn, less than a tenth of the increment in their wealth. Governments tell us they “can’t afford” more. In the UK, billionaires, on average, have become more than 1,000% richer since 1990. Most of their wealth derives from property, inheritance and finance.
The issue affects every aspect of policy. Trump is not seizing Venezuela’s oil wealth for the sake of the US poor. He couldn’t give a damn about them, as his “big, beautiful bill” – robbing the poor to give to the rich – revealed. He covets Greenland on behalf of the same elite interests, of which he is the avatar.
"When the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, helped destroy the lives of the world’s poorest by tearing down USAID, he did so on behalf of his class," says an article in 'The Guardian'.
Inequality damages every aspect of our lives. Decades of research by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson shows that higher inequality, regardless of absolute levels of wealth, is associated with higher crime, worse public health, higher addiction, lower educational attainment, worse status anxiety (leading to higher consumption of positional goods), worse pollution and destruction, and a host of other ills.
"Extreme inequality creates an “Epstein class” of global predators, exploiting the rest financially – and in other ways. It creates an ethos that no longer recognises our common humanity," says the piece penned by George Monbiot.
The global inequality in access to human capital remains enormous today, likely a much wider gap than most people would imagine. Average education spending per child in Sub Saharan Africa stood at around just €200 (purchasing power parity, PPP), compared with €7,400 in Europe and €9,000 in North America & Oceania: a gap of more than 1 to 40, i.e., approximately three times as much as the gap in per capita GDP.
Such disparities shape life chances across generations, entrenching a geography of opportunity that exacerbates and perpetuates global wealth hierarchies.
The report also shows that contributions to climate change are far from evenly distributed.
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Key Take Aways
A significant portion of billionaire wealth comes from inheritance, which is often largely untaxed in many countries. This creates an entrenched, aristocratic oligarchy that holds immense, unearned power over the economy and politics.
Many corporations run by the super-rich profit from modern colonial systems of wealth extraction, exploiting workers (particularly women in the Global South) through poor working conditions and minimal social protections in global supply chains.
Climate Change Disproportionate Impact:
The consumption and investments of the super-rich in polluting industries result in a massive carbon footprint that disproportionately impacts low-income people and communities of color who suffer the greatest consequences of climate breakdown.
How Rich People Create Poverty
“The real gains come from people moving to where their labor is more valuable — and that’s in high-income countries like the United States. The problem is, we rich Westerners won’t let them come.”
~Art Carden
It’s not just politicians.
Almost all the media belongs to super rich. \
As the wealth and power of the proprietor class becomes ever greater and harder to justify, the views expressed in their outlets become ever crazier. Immigrants, asylum seekers, women, transgender people, disabled people, students, protesters: anyone and everyone must be blamed for our dysfunctions, except those causing them.
Ever more extreme “culture wars” (a euphemism for divide-and-rule) must be waged.
It’s also why imaginary threats (Venezuela, “cultural Marxists”, “domestic terrorists”) must constantly be drummed up. You cannot have both a free market in media ownership and a free market in information and ideas. The oligarchs who dominate the sector stifle inconvenient thoughts and promote the policies that protect their fortunes.
ends
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