On the eve of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland – where the world’s fiscal heavyweights will discuss financial inequality – Oxfam have a released a report which sheds light on the gaping disparity between the world’s rich and poor.<br /><br /> The gap, which the charity says is continuing to widen, exposes and criticizes what Oxfam calls an “indecent” concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny minority, with just eight men owning the same amount as the poorest half of the world’s population.<br /><br /> “We have an economic system that is warped out of shape which means that the 1% benefit, said Oxfam’s Director of Campaigns and Policy Matthew Spencer.<br /><br /> “It’s designed to benefit the 1% rather than the 99%, which is why you could get the number of billionaires that have the same wealth as half of the rest of the world on one golf buggy.”<br /><br /> Those lucky eight people are, in order: founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, business magnate and founder of Inditex Amancio Ortega, investor Warren Buffett, telecoms magnate Carlos Slim, founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Oracle Larry Ellison and Michael Bloomberg, the founder and CEO of Bloomberg LP.<br /><br /> Between them they have more combined wealth than the poorest 3.6 billion people in the world put together.<br /><br /> Despite Bill Gates efforts to give much of his wealth away through his philanthropic work, Oxfam doesn’t believe this addresses the fundamental problem.<br /><br /> The charity is calling for a crackdown on the tax dodging and “super-charged” shareholder capitalism that sees the rich stay rich and the poor, poor.<br /><br /> Policy advisor for Oxfam, Max Lawson said: “Many, many billionaires pay hardly any tax, using tax havens to hide their money away… We’ve got a situation where billionaires are paying (proportionally) less tax often than their cleaner or their secretary. That’s crazy. We’re seeing wealth channelled upwards.”<br /><br /> He urged billionaires to “do the right thing”, and to do “what Bill Gates has called on them to do, which is pay their taxes”.<br /><br /> While many workers are struggling with stagnating incomes, the wealthy of the super-rich has increased by an average of 11 percent a year since 2009.<br /><br /> Tax havens which allow the wealthy to chop millions off their tax bills, has a knock-on effect on the poor.<br /><br /> In Kenya, for example, the effects of the growing disparity between the haves and the have nots are devastating. <br /><br /> While the wealthiest person in the country is worth over $700 million, 42 percent of Kenya’s population live below the poverty line.<br /><br /> Although over 2 million are forced to work off the books, without any services or protection in order to earn a living, ironically, Kenya’s economy is booming – boosted by big businesses coming coming to Nairobi to enjoy the tax incentives that are depriving the country of vital revenue.<br /><br /> “Inequality is definitely getting worse in a lot of countries and you’re seeing the super rich, in particular, move away from the rest o
