New report, …
"Top 1% make as much in a fortnight, as the bottom 5% make in a year"
All good,… lets give the wealthy massive Tax Cuts.
Country gets more like America every year under the Squiberals, …
Top Earners Get As Much In Two Weeks As Poorest Do In A Year
W3LiveNews.com
2 minutes
Hayden Patterson often has to choose between which of his crucial medical prescriptions he is going to go without each week. If he has $50 in the bank at any point, he’s happy. He recently started heating his Adelaide unit with a gas oven – he previously used an outdoor patio heater, but the fumes made him sick.
Meanwhile, a new report has found the top one percent of Australian households earn as much in one fortnight at the lowest five percent do in an entire year.
“It’s a struggle to do even the most basic things,” Patterson told ten daily.
“I can’t afford electric heating, my most economical way to heat my house is to turn the oven on. I make the most of what I can do.”
The Inequality in Australia 2018 report, from the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and the University of NSW has shone a shocking light on income inequality, revealing the top 20 percent of earners have five times as much disposable income as someone in the bottom 20 percent
“The reality of income inequality in Australia will come as a shock to many,” ACOSS said, and it’s hard to dispute.
“At the more extreme ends of the scale, people in the highest one percent live in households that have an average weekly disposable income of $11,682 per week, 26 times the income of a person in the lowest five percent ($436).”
Some of the more astounding findings of the ACOSS report include:
- The top 20 percent have five times the disposable income as the bottom 20 percent – nearly $4000 a week compared to $735 a week in 2016
- The highest 20 percent of earners receive more than the lowest 60 percent
- Most of those on the lowest incomes rely on social security including the aged pension or Newstart
- Average net wealth per household is $936,000 – the top 20 percent of households by wealth own 62 percent of all wealth, while the bottom half own just 18 percent
- The average wealth of a household in the top 20 percent ($2.9 million) is nearly 100 times that of the lowest 20 percent ($30,000)
“I’m absolutely shocked by those stats,” Patterson told ten daily.
“I’m well aware of the disparity but that blows my mind.”
There are also 3000 Australians in the “ultra-high wealth” category, with a net worth above $65 million.
"Australia has the fifth-highest number of people in the world with that amount of wealth, an extraordinary finding given our relatively small population," ACOCC said.