A disproportionate amount of wealth

No doubt many will claim that it is only envy which drives people to criticise how the wealth of a nation is "owned" - but can one really, really justify a situation such as that in Great Britain?

"The UK’s five richest families have accumulated more wealth than the whole of the bottom 20 per cent of the population, with the gap between rich and poor continuing to grow, according to research published today.

The handful of billionaires – which includes property investor Charles Cadogan and Sports Direct boss Michael Ashley – have amassed a combined wealth of £28.2bn, more than the poorest 12.6 million people in Britain, according to Oxfam.

The charity said the findings were “deeply worrying”, and that such inequality was a “sign of economic failure”. The study is released ahead of Wednesday’s Budget.

Using figures from Forbes magazine’s latest list of billionaires, the study also warns that the UK’s wealthiest 0.1 per cent have seen their income grow nearly four times faster than the least well-off 90 per cent of the population.

Britain’s five wealthiest people boast a collective worth of £28.2bn, while the total accumulated by the bottom 20 per cent sat at £28.1bn."

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"Oxfam’s findings come in the wake of a report in January which said that the 85 richest people on the planet had accumulated as much wealth as half of the world’s population."

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