Oxfam is again taking their class warfare spin on global wealth distribution. Comparing the collective wealth of billionaires to the bottom 50% poorest.
The Oxfam report is based on the credit suisse wealth report which is based upon the James Davies, Rodrigo Lluberas , and Anthony F. Shorrocks global wealth distribution analysis.
The bottom 10% have a collective negative $1.05 trillion net worth (-0.4% of $263 trillion). Each of the poorest 720 million people have an average of -$1450 in net worth.
The slightly positive wealth of the next 1.94 billion is needed to make up for the excess debt of the poorest. So the bottom 2.664 billion people collectively have $0 net worth. So the poorest person say with a larger negative net worth with more debt would have the equivalent of the poorest 2.66 billion. Not counting the positive wealth of 4 million people would mean the total would be -$4 billion.
The person with the most debt still has less debt than the poorest 720 million and less debt even if the next 1.94 billion were to liquidate to help pay the debt of the poorest 720 million. It is also interesting to note that most of the people with the most debt exceeding their assets are people in the United States and not subsistence farmers in Africa. Poor people in the USA can rack up more debt.
The debt estimate of the bottom 10% did increase from 2011 to 2013
The bottom 20% have negative wealth. The -0.2% of the bottom 10% is more than the +0.1% of the next 10%. It takes getting to the collective bottom 25% (the bottom 1.76 billion) to get to a combined net worth of zero. Not even the poorest person has negative $230 billion net worth. The poorest person might be a fallen billionaire (maybe Eike Batiste who racks up huge losses but cannot get to -5 billion, but then they are forced into bankruptcy. The bottom 1.5 billion who have a -$170 billion or so collectively.
The bottom 20-25% of US households have negative net worth
Oxfam has the wrong message
Bill Gates correctly points out :
Almost all countries will be what are now called lower-middle income or richer by 2035, Gates said in the letter. They will learn from their most productive neighbors and benefit from innovations such as new vaccines, better seeds and the digital revolution, he said.
“The belief that the world is getting worse, that we can’t solve extreme poverty and disease, isn’t just mistaken. It is harmful,” Gates wrote. “By almost any measure, the world is better than it has ever been. In two decades it will be better still.”
Nextbigfuture has noted that extreme poverty could be eliminated by 2025.
The World Bank has made this an objective as well.
Some other observations
5 million people in Norway share in an $830 billion fund built from oil revenues. If Governments manage to a surplus then assets could be accumulated for a country instead of debt. Everyone in Norway has a $160,000 cut of the fund.
The Norway fund is equal to about the top 85 billionaires wealth.
The Swiss average out to being the wealthiest in the world and are close to becoming US dollar millionaires on average.
Google Internet from drones and balloons can boost the wealth of the poorest and save millions of lives
Reaching 90% of the world’s people with wireless service by 2030, up from 32% now, would produce economic gains of $17 for every $1 spent, it estimated. That’s below the $21 in benefits from a building out fixed broadband networks.
* this could provide over $22 trillion of GDP growth by 2030 ($2.2 trillion per year by getting to lifting developing world to the developed world 75% internet access)
* 160 million people could be lifted from poverty and 120 million jobs could be provided
Google internet balloons, drones and satellites could be the means to accelerate mobile internet deployment to the developing world. Facebook is also working on internet drones.
Deloitte estimates that extending internet access in developing economies to the level seen in developed countries can raise living standards and incomes by up to $600 per person a year, thus lifting 160 million people out of extreme poverty in the regions covered by this study.
The internet provides a route through which to improve awareness of diseases and provide information on health treatments. A number of free mobile-based and web-based applications exist in developing countries that provide information related to nutrition, hygiene and prevention of common illnesses. Evidence on the link between health literacy and mortality rates suggests that access to the internet has the potential to save nearly 2.5 million lives across the regions covered by this study, if they were to achieve the level of internet penetration seen in developed economies. In particular, Deloitte estimates that improved health information to expecting mothers and health workers could lead to a reduction of child mortality, saving 250,000 children who may otherwise have died during their first year of life.
If developing countries were to catch up with levels of internet access in developed economies today, they would reach a penetration level of around 75%, more than tripling the number of internet users from 800 million to 3 billion. This means that an additional 2.2 billion people would receive internet access; of these, 700 million would be in Africa, 200 million in Latin America and 1.3 billion in the Asian regions.
Deloitte estimates that increasing internet access to levels experienced in developed countries can increase the GDP of the regions considered by up to $2.2 trillion (an increase of 15%), with South and East Asia and India each gaining about $0.6 trillion in additional economic activity. Over ten years from 2020 to 2030 this would be a $22 trillion boost to GDP.
Output in Africa could increase by over $0.5 trillion. Across the developing world, this represents an increase in the GDP growth rate of over 72%: in India GDP growth rates have the potential to double, in Africa to grow by 92% and in South and East Asia to rise by 75%. These differences are based on GDP forecasts for the next years obtained from the IMF. They further highlight the potential impacts of internet access as a catalyst for economic growth, especially for regions, such as India, which are forecast to grow at a slower pace in the next years.
Google’s offering is called Google Free Zone. Through this two-year-old initiative, the company makes deals with mobile carriers in specific countries and agrees to pay the data charges of people who use Google search, Gmail or Google+.
Google Free Zone, as announced by Google on Nov. 8, 2012, operates in South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Nigeria and Kenya.
Facebook Zero, Wikipedia Zero and Google Free Zone are great for the relatively small number of people who live in the right countries and use participating carriers.
Subsidized data plans are possible only for people who live in areas where mobile connectivity exists. But billions of people live beyond the reach of any kind of Internet connection.
Google Project Loon is planning to use balloons to deliver internet access across the southern hemisphere. Google’s most recent test of Project Loon is taking place in Australia, where the company is partnering with Australian telecom Telstra. It’s launching 20 balloons over Queensland this month. There are also tests underway in New Zealand, California’s Central Valley and northeast Brazil.
There are about 75 Loon balloons in the air right now. By next year, Google intends to form a continuous, 50-mile-wide ring of Loon coverage that circles the Southern Hemisphere. The purpose of these tests is partly to demonstrate Project Loon to the telecommunications companies that may partner with Google on the management of local programs.
Google also announced recently that it’s already reaching its goal of keeping balloons aloft for around 100 days — in fact, one of its balloons remained airborne for 134 days
Facebook is interested in using high-flying drones to blanket parts of the world without Internet access, beginning with Africa. Earlier this year, Facebook acquired a consultancy called Ascenta. It was mainly an “aquihire” to get the founders, who developed Zephyr, which is the record holder for solar-powered drone flight, having put a solar drone in the sky for two weeks back in 2010.
11,000 of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could provide internet to Africa. With Titan’s drones, Google could provide connectivity over longer distances, connecting their ring of internet balloons to other rings in remote areas.
In theory, a solar-powered drone capable of withstanding long flights at high altitude—in what Titan executives call the “sweet spot” in the Earth’s atmosphere between 60,000 and 70,000 feet, above nearly all weather patterns in a zone where winds are typically less than 5 knots (5.75 miles/hour)—would be able to perform tasks usually reserved for satellites at a much lower cost. A drone could be put up quickly, for much less initial capital. At the same time, it would provide targeted imagery at a cost of less than $5 per square kilometer—versus $35 per square kilometer from a satellite—while still offering the large area of coverage of a satellite
Earlier studies by the center found that $1 spent to alleviate childhood malnutrition would do $45 of good, while $1 spent on malaria would produce $35 of benefit. Each $1 spent to treat and research vaccines for HIV would generate $11 of gains.
“This doesn’t mean we should stop helping people with HIV and put all our money into broadband. But it suggests where the most development money should be focused,” said Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center.
Comparisons between the benefits of HIV research and broadband access “infuriate a lot of people,” Lomborg admitted. But the goal of such studies is to influence debate on how an estimated $2.5 trillion of global development aid will be spent between 2015 and 2030, he added.
A basic amount of electricity and lighting could be rolled out in two years and not 20 years to help the poorest
In 2010, some 2.8 billion people relied on traditional fuels such as wood, charcoal and animal and crop waste to cook and heat their homes; three-quarters of them lived in just 20 countries in Asia and Africa; 1.2 billion, or 17% of the world’s population still have no electricity. Achieving universal access to modern energy (electricity and clean and modern cooking) is one of three objectives of the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative, alongside greater energy efficiency and increased use of renewables. The initiative is led by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Its first report, released on May 28th, compiled global data from 15 agencies. The IEA reckons that nearly $50 billion a year will be needed to achieve the first goal (universal electricity and clean cooking) by 2030.
My Proposal – solar power for LED and clean cooking and give the carbon credit offset in unused kerosene to donating country or company
Although small scale solar power and LED lighting could provide basic electrification for $100 billion for all of the 1.6 billion people.
Clean cooking for another $50 billion for all of those that need it.
People are currently burning wood and kerosene.
Provide the offset in carbon credits to those who donate the solar panels, LED lighting and clean cooking equipment.
Universal electricity, lighting and clean cooking who be a huge boost to the extremely poor.
They would have better health from less pollution exposure.
They would not need to spend time looking for and gathering wood or actual crap to burn.
They would be able to study at night.
They would have power for low cost smartphones and tablets.
Instead of paying 10-30% of income for kerosene even the extremely poor could buy a $20 tablet.
They could start climbing out of poverty by being connected and having some basics.
Nokero has a $5 solar powered bulb. They have produced over 1 million of them
In some areas of Africa, people spend from 10 to 30 percent of their income on refilling kerosene lamps, which are little more than tin cans with an open flame. Burning them releases millions of tons of carbon dioxide per year and contributes to climate change. And igniting them in a closed home can equate to smoking a couple of packs a cigarettes a day. Smoke from burning kerosene irritates the eyes, so students extinguish them instead of doing homework.
Some nonprofits, such the Light Up the World Foundation, pair solar panels with LEDs. The organization Solar Sister provides women in Africa with training, marketing, and an inventory of solar-powered light bulbs. M-Kopa in Kenya provides a financing scheme along with the requisite technology; the organization sells an entire home system with solar panels, lights, and a cellphone charger, for about $200. Customers pay as little as about 45 cents a day and can pay off the debt in a year.
South Asia and Subsaharan Africa are the main places with gaps in electrification. Clean cooking is not available there either but also has a large gap in East Asia
China recorded the largest energy savings and greatest expansion in renewable energy globally. India has electrified an annual average of 24 million people and provided 20 million a year with access to modern cooking and heating fuels since 1990. The experience of these fast-moving countries offers lessons for the high-impact countries in tackling the goals. China and India are in both categories.
The Worldbank plan – Countries, international organizations, private sector and civil society need to more than double existing energy investments of $409 billion. They need to add at least $600 billion more every year until 2030. The additional $600 billion would include $45 billion for electricity expansion, $4.4 billion on modern cooking, $394 billion in energy efficiency, and $174 billion on renewable energy.
SOURCES – Computer World, Copenhagen Consensus, Forbes, Deloitte, Google Loon, economist, Credit Suisse, Oxfam, James Davies – Rodrigo Lluberas and Anthony F. Shorrocks global wealth distribution 2014 presentation
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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