Bernie Sanders has set out the case to banish billionaires – saying there is no justification for people to be that rich.
The Vermont senator, who takes on the 1 per cent in his new book It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, spoke out about obscene levels of wealth in an interview, warning the middle class is becoming increasingly squeezed as the super-rich continue to accumulate wealth.
The richest 1 per cent of people in the UK are now wealthier than 70 per cent of the population combined, according to analysis by Oxfam.
A report by the charity highlights how the 685,500 richest people in Britain are worth a total of £2.8 trillion, compared with 48 million people in the UK whose combined wealth totals £2.4 trillion.
Oxfam’s report, called Survival of the Richest, builds a picture of widening worldwide inequality, after extreme poverty and extreme wealth increased simultaneously over the past two years for the first time in quarter of a century.
The findings underscore Sanders’ calls for a new wealth tax to limit how much wealth one person can acquire.
Listen to his thoughts in full below:
Related: World’s ten richest men doubled wealth in pandemic, Oxfam says