The economic gap between the world's wealthy and poor is becoming worse, the international social justice organization Oxfam said in a report released Monday.
According to the report, "Working for the Few," almost half of the wealth in the entire world, $110 trillion, is owned by one percent of the population.
In other words, the 85 richest people in the world have the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world's population.
"Widening inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth and power are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leaving the rest of us to fight over crumbs from the top table," Oxfam's Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said in a statement obtained by CBC News.
The report also tracks how the wealth of the richest people increased over time. Seven out of 10 people are from countries where the gap between the rich and poor increased over the last three decades, the Oxfam report states. Between 1980 and 2012, the wealth of the one percent increased in 24 out of 26 countries.
During economic growth after the 2008 recession, 90 percent of the poorest people in the U.S. became poorer, according to the report, while 95 percent of post-crisis gains when to the one percent.
One possible reason for the widespread inequality is that countries pass laws that favor the rich. This was especially true for Spain, where eight out of 10 people believe the government protects the wealthy, Oxfam reported.
"Wealthy elites have co-opted political power to rig the rules of the economic game, undermining democracy," Oxfam said, according to CBC News.
"Extreme economic inequality and political capture are too often interdependent," Oxfam said in the report.
If "left unchecked, political institutions become undermined and governments overwhelmingly serve the interests of economic elites to the detriment of ordinary people. Extreme inequality is not inevitable, and it can and must be reversed quickly."
