Africa’s four richest people hold more wealth than half the continent’s population combined, the charity Oxfam reported, warning that skewed policies are fuelling deepening poverty and the soaring fortunes of a few.
Africa had no billionaires in 2000, but now it has 23 with an estimated shared wealth that has rocketed by 56 per cent in the last five years, with the richest recording even bigger gains, Oxfam said.
“Africa’s wealth is not missing. It’s being siphoned off by a rigged system that allows a small elite to amass vast fortunes while denying hundreds of millions even the most basic services,” said Fati N’Zi-Hassane, the director of Oxfam in Africa, adding that policy failures were “unjust, avoidable and entirely reversible.’’
Any economic system that produces growth – so, only capitalist free marketry of some variant – will, as a side effect, produce billionaires. You can say that billionaires are bad etc – sure, you’re free to be a drooling moron all you want – but you still need to grasp that they’re a trivial side effect of the desperately needed growth happening.
Hold on
Oxfam, the former DfID et al have been shoving money directly into the pockets of corrupt politicians and businessmen in Africa for decades.
And they’ve only just noticed ?
We all know the left would gladly see the worlds poorest get poorer if it meant Bezos and Elon were poor too.
Oxfam discovers Pareto. Read all about it.
So how’s Oxfam getting on with changing African culture?
“So how’s Oxfam getting on with changing African culture?”
I’d say Africa is doing pretty good job of making white middle class Europeans just like them – constantly with their hands out demanding money from the productive.
More to the point, how many of those billionaires achieved it by being involved in the somewhat dubious politics of the continent, rather than by creating real companies and real wealth?
So how’s Oxfam getting on with changing African culture?
They seek to cure what’s deep inside, frightened of this thing that they’ve become?
More seriously, not again how the accusation is fronted as if Oxfam’s assertions are the obvious truth, and how the credulous press readily give Oxfam a prime place in their news coverage because Oxfam.
I heard a story on the same report yesterday, in German on SRF’s (Switzerland) radio news. Same putting the accusation before who’s making the accusation, same lack of disbelief.
Baron, billionaires who create real companies and wealth generate vast, visible consumer surplus. If such a surplus exists in Africa it’s well hidden. Therefore…
Throughout history the richest rulers in Africa have gained their fortunes largely through warfare and consequent enslavement of their neighbours.
I guess that counts as a free market, unless you happened to be on the receiving end.
shoving money directly into the pockets of corrupt politicians and businessmen………and they’ve only just noticed ?
Next you’ll be telling me the same thing has been happening with Gaza and the West Bank over the past 30-40 years. Luckily the west has learned its lesson and nowadays keeps a close track of everything given to Ukraine.
(Hang on, I’ve got Mauritius on the line and they’d like to say something about some archipelago).
“Africa’s wealth is not missing. It’s being siphoned off..’”
The notion that “wealth” is a finite amount – a cake, pie, lake – and greedy capitalists can grab a bigger portion making the portions for “the poor” smaller, just won’t die.
Ah yes, the old claim that Europeans stole Africa’s wealth by mining & extracting valuable minerals that the natives would never have done anything with.
JB, like Murphy these people equate “wealth” with money, or perhaps doubloons, which can certainly be “syphoned off”. And that simply shows how much of a clue they have.
Africa is poor because it is unproductive, and for geographical reasons it’s costly to trade what productivity it has. There are geographical reasons for its lack of productivity but the primary problem is its collectivist tribal culture. There’s no point in trying if you’re culturally obliged to donate the fruits of your labours to lazy relatives.
Funnily enough, something similar happens under Communism. And what happened after the Whites left? Africa went Communist, compounding the problem.
Africa will never become wealthy while it has a culture antithetical to wealth-creation. Is Oxfam going to do anything about that? Is it heck. On the contrary, it works actively to perpetuate the problem.
Oxfam is an unmitigated bunch of cunts.
If Oxfam solved the problems it was created to solve, there would no longer be any need for highly-paid Oxfam employees.
Africa had no billionaires in 2000
Really? I thought the family that stole Equatorial Guinea were billionaires way before then.
Oxfam’s declared ambition to change African culture is neo colonialist posturing.
How many of Africa’s billionnaires are members of the Communist/a Marxist-Leninist Party, or children of members?
All the ones of whom I have heard
Africa’s four richest people hold more wealth than half the continent’s population combined
What’s the total wealth of the bottom third of Africa’s population? I’d guess close to zero, or negative, depending how you count ‘wealth’.
‘Africa’s four richest people hold more wealth than half the continent’s population combined, the charity Oxfam reported’
Why? No, why did they report it?
To create bitterness, envy and strife. Some ‘charity.’
‘warning that skewed policies are fuelling deepening poverty’
Subsistence farmers in Africa don’t know what a ‘policy’ is, let alone a skewed one.
Got any recipes?
‘Africa had no billionaires in 2000, but now it has 23 with an estimated shared wealth that has rocketed by 56 per cent in the last five years, with the richest recording even bigger gains, Oxfam said.’
What’s 56% of dirt?
‘amass vast fortunes’
From dirt farmers. I never cease to be amazed by people who can get wealthy off people who have nothing.
They could go back to the old system where only the warlords and corrupt politicians got rich.
They destroyed so much in their grasping that they were only ever multimillionaires while grinding the populace in the mud.