Oxfam Media Briefing: The Cost of Inequality

The richest one per cent has increased its income by 60 per cent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process.

Oxfam's warns that extreme wealth and income is not only unethical it is also economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive.

Closing tax havens – which hold as much as US $32 trillion or a third of all global wealth – could yield an additional $189bn in additional tax revenues. In addition to a tax haven crackdown, elements of a global new deal could include:

• a reversal of the trend towards more regressive forms of taxation;
• a global minimum corporation tax rate;
• measures to boost wages compared with returns available to capital;
• increased investment in free public services and safety nets.

Read: The Cost of Inequality: How wealth and income extremes hurt us all