ABSTRACT
Introduction As noted in Chapter 1 of this book, the currently dominant economic system is not only damaging the environment and destroying natural resources, but also increasing social inequality. We can find support for this statement by looking at journals and reports on individual wealth. Credit Suisse Research Institute’s Global Wealth Report (2014) reveals that global wealth reached a new all-time high of USD 263 trillion in 2014, an increase of 8.3 per cent from the year before.1 Average wealth hit a new peak of USD 56,000 per adult. At the same time, inequality remains high, with the top 10 per cent of the world population owning 87 per cent of global wealth, compared to the mere 1 per cent owned by the bottom half of all adults. In addition, the top 1 per cent alone accounts for 48.2 per cent of global assets. The top 10 countries in the wealth-per-adult league table include many smaller, dynamic economies – Switzerland, Norway, Luxembourg, Singapore, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark – as well as France, Australia and the US. Notable cases of emerging wealth were found in Chile, Columbia, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Slovenia and Uruguay.
