Is Oxfam right about the world’s richest and poorest people?
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We investigate Oxfam’s claim that “since 2020, the five richest men in the world have seen their fortunes more than double, while almost five billion people have seen their wealth fall”.
With the help of Johan Norberg, Historian and Author of ideas and Felix Salmon, Financial Correspondent at Axios, we explore the figures behind the wealth of the richest and uncover what it really tells us about the world’s financial markets.
And Charles Kenny, senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development in Washington DC, helps us unpick why, when looking at the world’s poorest people, measurements of wealth don’t always tell us what we really need to know.
Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Debbie Richford Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Series Producer: Tom Colls Sound Mix: Hal Haines Editor: Richard Vadon
(image: Elon Musk at the Viva Tech fair in Paris June 2023. Credit: Nathan Laine/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and thanks for downloading the more or less podcast. |
| 0:03.4 | We're your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Harford. |
| 0:07.4 | This week we're looking at a report recently issued by Oxfam, a global charity |
| 0:16.4 | fighting to overcome poverty. The new report it says illustrates the need for a new era of public action. |
| 0:25.0 | Loyal listeners will know that Oxfam puts out a report along these lines every January, |
| 0:30.0 | and we have often found the need to raise an eyebrow at previous editions. |
| 0:35.4 | So what's in this year's report? |
| 0:37.2 | The key message is this. |
| 0:39.1 | Since 2020 and the beginning of this decade of division, the five richest men in the world have seen |
| 0:45.4 | their fortunes more than double, while almost five billion people have seen their wealth fall. |
| 0:53.0 | They are correct. |
| 0:55.0 | This is true, but it's incredibly misleading. |
| 0:59.0 | That's Johann Norberg, a Swedish historian of ideas. |
| 1:03.2 | But we're not just going to take his word for it, especially since he's affiliated with the Cato |
| 1:07.8 | Institute, which is a well-respected Libertarian think tank in Washington. that happens to have been co-founded by a billionaire. |
| 1:15.8 | Note we're going to dig into the numbers themselves. |
| 1:18.7 | Let's start with the first bit of Oxfam's claim that since 2020 the five richest men in the world |
| 1:25.8 | have seen their fortunes more than double. But do they mean the five richest men |
| 1:31.2 | back in 2020 or the five richest men today. If you analyze the top |
| 1:36.3 | five from 2020 you might include people who are losing ground for example Bill Gates whose wealth was barely more in 2023 than it was in 2020. |
| 1:47.0 | If you take the top five from 2023, which Oxfam did, you capture the rising stars. |
| 1:54.0 | In particular, you include Elon Musk, who wasn't in the top 5 back in 2020, |
... |
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