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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/16/oxfam-wealth-inequality-davos/ The world could have its first trillionaire within 10 years if current inequality trends continue, antipoverty group Oxfam International said in a report published Monday, reflecting the increasing gap between the world’s wealthy and poor. The report, titled “Inequality Inc.,” was released the same day as the start of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Its authors say the world is living through a “decade of division,” pointing out that since 2019, the world’s five wealthiest people have almost doubled their wealth, while nearly 5 billion people have become poorer. Using data from Forbes, the report’s authors calculated that the combined wealth of those five men — Tesla CEO Elon Musk; Bernard Arnault and his family, who own luxury goods group LVMH; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; Oracle founder Larry Ellison; and investor Warren Buffett — increased from $453 billion in 2019 to $869 billion as of November 2023. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) In their methodology, the authors wrote that if that growth trajectory continues, Musk — the world’s richest person, according to Forbes — is projected to become a trillionaire in fewer than nine years, though they noted that the estimate is subject to uncertainty. “If each of the five wealthiest men were to spend a million dollars daily, they would take 476 years to exhaust their combined wealth,” Oxfam’s authors wrote. Representatives for these individuals could not immediately be reached late Monday. But, Oxfam said, for the world’s poorest people — who are more likely to be women and marginalized groups in every society — “daily life has become more brutal” since 2019. It pointed to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as “escalating conflict, the acceleration of the climate crisis and surging costs of living.” The report also said that globally, men own $105 trillion more than women — a difference in wealth equivalent to more than four times the size of the U.S. economy. Oxfam urged governments worldwide to adopt caps on CEO salaries, along with permanent taxes on wealth and excess profits.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/household-incomes-rose-in-2022-income-inequality-fell SINGAPORE – Median household income grew in 2022 and income inequality fell when compared with 2021, figures released by the Singapore Department of Statistics (SingStat) on Thursday showed. Among resident employed households, monthly household income from work grew by 6.1 per cent in nominal terms, or before adjusting for inflation, from $9,520 in 2021 to $10,099 in 2022. Median monthly household income from work rose 0.2 per cent in real terms, or after adjusting for inflation, in 2022. Household income from work includes employer Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions. From 2017 to 2022, median monthly household income from work of resident employed households increased 2.9 per cent cumulatively, or 0.6 per cent per annum in real terms. Such households have at least one employed person, and the household reference person – previously referred to as the head of household – is a Singapore citizen or permanent resident. Taking into account household size, median monthly household income from work per household member rose from $3,027 in 2021 to $3,287 in 2022, an increase of 8.6 per cent in nominal terms, or 2.6 per cent after adjusting for inflation. From 2017 to 2022, median monthly household income per household member grew by 11.9 per cent cumulatively, or 2.3 per cent per annum in real terms. Rise in income for all but top earners Households across most income deciles saw increases in average household income from work per household member after adjusting for inflation. In 2022, the average household income from work per household member of resident employed households in all income groups rose in nominal terms, with the increases ranging from 5.3 per cent to 15.6 per cent. After adjusting for inflation, households in the first nine deciles saw real income growth of 1.1 per cent to 10.1 per cent, while those in the top decile saw a real income decline of 1.3 per cent. Between 2017 and 2022, the average household income from work per household member of resident employed households in the first nine deciles rose 1.5 per cent to 3.0 per cent per annum in real terms, while that in the top decile recorded a decline of 0.4 per cent per annum in real terms. The decline experienced by the top decile was because of a larger increase in household size from 2.26 in 2021 to 2.34 in 2022, compared with households in the other deciles. This, coupled with higher inflation experienced in 2022, contributed to the decline in their real household income in 2022. More money distributed through government schemes Resident households, including households with no employed person, received $5,765 per household member, on average, from government schemes in 2022. This was higher than the $5,257 received in 2021, due to the one-off and transitionary measures in 2022, as well as enhanced schemes, to cushion the impact of the goods and services tax (GST) rate increase and higher inflation on cost of living, said SingStat. Resident households living in one- and two-room Housing Board flats continued to receive the most money from the Government. In 2022, they received $12,189 per household member, on average, from government schemes, close to double the amount received by resident households living in HDB three-room flats. The Gini coefficient based on household income from work per household member – before government transfers and taxes – fell to 0.437 in 2022, from 0.444 in 2021. The Gini coefficient is a measure of income inequality. A Gini coefficient of zero occurs when there is total income equality, and a coefficient of one means there is total inequality. After adjusting for government transfers and taxes, the Gini coefficient in 2022 fell from 0.437 to 0.378. “This reflected the redistributive effect of government transfers and taxes,” said SingStat. Nonetheless, this is still slightly higher than the Gini coefficient of 0.375 in 2020, which was the lowest on record. The report, Key Household Income Trends, 2022, is available on SingStat’s website.

Wifey is having this problem where she feels very uncomfortable in the presence of people who are very rich. She feels very out of place and is affecting her mentally. Yet can't avoid these situations. Those people got those 狗眼 who look down on people. I told her to ignore those people but not helping much. What to do?

This Singaporean doesn't need to buy anything! https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/videos/454647218384501/?t=65 I am most interested in his watch.

How ah?

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/th...regions-highest Published June 28, 2012 Income inequality here seen as one of the region's highest 9 in 10 polled can't tell which income bracket they're in By lim wei sheng IT'S a head-scratching paradox. While Singaporeans perceive income inequality levels here as being one of the highest in the region, nine out of 10 don't even know which income bracket they belong to. According to a March 2012 survey of 10 Asia-Pacific cities by Fidelity Worldwide Investment, of the 90 per cent of Singaporeans who do not know which income bracket their household belongs to, 68 per cent underestimate and 22 per cent overestimate it. This leads to the poorest households in the first decile perceiving themselves as situated in the third decile, while those in the wealthiest 10th decile locate themselves within the more modest sixth decile. These misperceptions have implications for investment decisions, according to Betty Ng, director of investment communications, Asia Pacific at Fidelity. She said that overestimation can lead to overspending, while underestimation may cause investors to lose returns due to excessive risk-aversion or risk-taking. Income inequality fears remain very much alive, though. Based on responses by the 507 Singaporeans surveyed, a typical household needs to earn an average of $2,662 in monthly pre-tax income to be qualified as low-income, and earn an average of $12,140 to be qualified as high-income. The difference between what constitutes low and high income is the widest for respondents in Singapore, suggesting that respondents here perceive the greatest inequality in their current incomes. Three in four Singaporeans are also expecting widening spreads in income levels over the next 10 years, comparable to the regional average of 76 per cent. Only 42 per cent of Singaporeans believe that their household income would improve in the future, compared to 49 per cent for all 10 cities. Nevertheless, Singaporeans foresee a more optimistic future for their children, with 91 per cent of respondents believing that their children would attain middle or high income status when they reach their 40s. Indeed, 35 per cent of self-classified low-income respondents predicted that their children would attain high income status, while this proportion was 67 per cent for self-classified high-income respondents. Based on data from the Department of Statistics, average monthly household income in 2011 stood at $9,618, with income in the fifth decile standing at $7,032 while income in the 10th decile reached $27,867.