比爾·蓋茨證明了，如果你已經很富有了，那么變得更富有也不是什么難事。

OxFam International的一份最新報告顯示，如果身家十億的富豪們保持現在的收益率，未來25年內就將誕生首位萬億富翁。這家慈善機構強調了這種可能性，針對全球日益不平等的現象發出了警告，并表示其部分原因在于超級富豪。

這份報告發布于上周一，恰好在政治領導人和首席執行官每年聚首于瑞士達沃斯舉行世界經濟論壇之前。它凸顯了全球財富的集中程度。在過去25年里，全球最富有的1%的人積聚的財富，比富有程度排在后50%的人群總和還要更多。實際上，全球最富有的八個人（以擁有750億美元的微軟創始人比爾·蓋茨為首），如今擁有的總財富與全球最窮的半數人口加起來的財富一樣多。

現有富豪的財富的快速積累，是全球財富分配巨大不均的原因之一。一旦積聚了足夠的財富，它們自身就會開始增長——自從2009年起，增速達到每年11%——這個速度遠遠超過了勤儉節約的普通人的儲蓄速度。報告指出，如果他們的財富維持這樣的增長速度，在未來25年內，世界上就會誕生第一位萬億富翁。

例如，自從蓋茨于2006年離開微軟起，他的財富已經增長了50%，即250億美元。盡管他試圖通過自己的慈善基金會慷慨解囊。

然而，據OxFam表示，這些超級富豪可沒有安心當著財富積累的“受益人”。其中的一些人還在“積極延續這種身份”。他們的手段包括偷稅漏稅、插手政治，或者是成為“影響公司行為的股東崇拜”的獲利者。

OxFam認為，這種不公平的加劇，將威脅到社會穩定，讓全球部分地區已經爆發的民粹主義愈演愈烈。為了避免這種情況，這家慈善機構呼吁“為99%的人口設計”“人性化”經濟體系，讓富人繳納更高的、更公平的稅費份額，放棄他們不公平的特權。（財富中文網）

作者：Claire Zillman

譯者：嚴匡正

Bill Gates shows that if you're already rich, it's hard to not get even richer.

If billionaires continue their current rate of returns, the world could see its first trillionaire sometime in the next 25 years , according to a new report from OxFam International. The charity highlighted this possibility as it issued a warning against widening inequality worldwide, which it blamed in part on the super-rich.

The report was published last Monday ahead of the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of political leaders and CEOs in Davos, Switzerland. It highlights just how concentrated the world's wealth has become. Over the last 25 years, the top 1% have gained more income than the bottom 50% put together. In fact, the eight richest individuals in the world—led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates' $75 billion fortune—now own the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity.

The surging sums of the already-rich is one factor in the world's vast wealth disparity. Once such fortunes are accumulated, they develop a momentum of their own with growth—11% per year since 2009—that far outpaces ordinary savers. If that rate of growth continues, it will produce the first trillionaire in the next quarter century, the report says.

Gates' wealth, for instance, has increased by 50% or $25 billion since he left Microsoft in 2006, even though he's tried to give much of it away through his philanthropic foundation.

But the super-rich are not simply "benign recipients" of the increasing concentration of wealth, OxFam says. Rather, some members of this group are "actively perpetuating it" by dodging taxes, buying political influence, and being beneficiaries of the "shareholder worship that is warping the behavior of corporations."

OxFam presented growing inequality as a threat to social stability and fuel for the populism that’s now blazing across parts of the globe. To combat it, the charity is calling for a "human" economy that's "designed for the 99%," which would require the wealthy to pay a higher, fairer share of taxes and abandon their unfair privileges.