Distribution of wealth is increasingly polarized year after year. The richest become richer, the poorest remain so, and the majority stuck in the middle descends into poverty. As population grows, so does the number of billionaires, and similarly does the number of poor. But while the crowds of poor people are engrossed by a rising number of former middle-class people being rejected to the shrinking-income earning strata, the billionaires see their collective wealth grow from 3.4 % of GWP (world gross product) in 1996, to a plush 14.2 % in 2025.

As reported by the World Bank, the institution which manages and reports on the United Nations development goals initiative :

In 2022, 712 million people (or 9 per cent of the world’s population) lived in extreme poverty, an increase of 23 million people over 2019. Projections suggest that by 2030, 590 million people, or 6.9 per cent of the global population, may remain in extreme poverty if current trends persist (…) Nearly 241 million workers globally still lived in extreme poverty in 2023. Little positive change is expected in 2024.

Informal employment poses a significant global challenge, with over 2 billion workers in informal jobs lacking social protection in 2023.

Hunger and food insecurity remained persistently high and almost unchanged for three years. In 2023, about 733 million people faced hunger, and 2.33 billion people experienced moderate to severe food insecurity. Despite progress, 148 million children under age 5 suffered from stunting in 2022. If current trends persist, one in five children under age 5 will be affected by stunting in 2030.

Ironically, the super-rich do not seem to fully benefit from their expanding wealth in a world where the poor struggle with the hazards of unaffordable health-care and shortage of other social support benefits.

It is common knowledge that life expectancy has been declining in many developed countries, namely the United States, in recent years. The surprise is that, according to a recent comparative study of death rates, the gap in survival between the top and bottom wealth quartiles is obviously wide everywhere, but it is wider in the United States than in Europe. Healthcare spending in the U.S. is not associated with health gains in the U.S., as it is in other countries. Survival in the wealthiest U.S. quartile appeared to be similar to that in the poorest quartile in northern and western Europe.

According to the study, individuals in the wealthiest quartile had a death rate that is 40% lower than for individuals in the poorest quartile (…) The nation’s wealthiest Americans have shorter lifespans on average than the wealthiest Europeans; in some cases, the wealthiest Americans have survival rates on par with the poorest Europeans in western parts of Europe such as Germany, France and the Netherlands (…) The findings are a stark reminder that even the wealthiest Americans are not shielded from the systemic issues in the U.S. contributing to lower life expectancy, such as economic inequality or risk factors like stress, diet or environmental hazards. 

If it doesn’t work, shouldn’t it be fixed ?

Source: Forbes List of billionaires. The World Bank-DataBank.