Billionaires adding to poverty

Level 3

Advanced

1 Warmer
a. Write the following numbers.
one hundred and eighty-nine billion
_________________________________________________
thirty-one trillion
_________________________________________________
b. How many billionaires can you name?
c. What is Oxfam?

2 Key words
Write the key words from the article next to the definitions below. Then find the words in the article to read
them in context.

accumulation
unprecedented

amassed
revenues

pledge
tackle

curb
tax havens

hinder
yield

inevitably
undermine

1. to stop someone or something from making progress or developing __________________

2. to make an organized and determined attempt to deal with a problem, often a social problem
__________________
3. the process by which something increases in amount over time __________________
4. the greatest in size, amount, degree, etc that has ever been known __________________
5. collected (a lot of something) over a period of time __________________
6. to promise a certain amount of money for a particular purpose __________________
7. to control or limit something that is harmful __________________
8. used for saying that something is certain to happen __________________
9. to make something or someone become gradually less effective, beneficial or successful
__________________
10. places where people go to live, or where they keep their money, so that they do not have to pay higher taxes in
their home country __________________
11. to produce something useful such as information or evidence __________________

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NEWS LESSONS / Billionaires adding to poverty / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013

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12. income from business activities or taxes __________________

Billionaires adding to poverty

Advanced

2 The charity said the accumulation of wealth and

income on an unprecedented scale, often at the
expense of secure jobs and decent wages for
the poorest, undermined the ability of people
who survive on aid or low wages to improve
their situation and escape poverty.
3 Oxfam said the worlds poorest could be lifted
out of poverty several times over if the richest
100 billionaires would give away the money
they made in 2012.
4 Without pointing a finger at individuals, the
charity argued that the $240bn net income
amassed in 2012 by the richest 100 billionaires
would be enough to make extreme poverty
history four times over.
5 It is rare for charities to attack the wealthy, who
are usually regarded as a source of funding. Bill
Gates and Warren Buffett are among a group
of 40 US billionaires who have pledged much
of their wealth to aid projects, but there is little
detail about the level of their annual donations.
Their actions have also not been matched by
Russian, Middle Eastern or Chinese billionaires.
6 In the report, The Cost of Inequality: How
Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt Us All,
published just before the World Economic
Forum in Davos, the charity calls on world
leaders to curb income extremes and commit to
reducing inequality to at least 1990 levels.
7 The report found that the richest 1% had
increased their incomes by 60% in the past
20 years, with the financial crisis accelerating
rather than slowing the process.
8 Barbara Stocking, Oxfams Chief Executive,
said extreme wealth was economically
inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive
and environmentally destructive.
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013
NEWS LESSONS / Billionaires adding to poverty / Advanced

11 The report said the issue affected all parts

of the world. In the UK, inequality is rapidly
returning to levels not seen since the time
of Charles Dickens [the nineteenth-century
novelist]. In China, the top 10% now take home
nearly 60% of the income. Chinese inequality
levels are now similar to those in South Africa,
which is now the most unequal country on Earth
and significantly more unequal than at the end
of apartheid.
12 In the US, the share of national income going
to the top 1% has doubled since 1980 from 10
to 20%, the report says. For the top 0.01% the
share of national income is above levels last
seen in the 1920s.
13 The World Bank and International Monetary
Fund have argued that extreme income
inequality undermines growth and both
organizations have attempted to tie their loans
to programmes that limit the growth
of inequality.
14 Members of the richest 1% are estimated to use
as much as 10,000 times more carbon than the
average US citizen.
15 Oxfam said world leaders should learn from
countries such as Brazil, which has grown
rapidly while reducing inequality.
16 Stocking said: We need a global new deal to
reverse decades of increasing inequality. As a
first step, world leaders should formally commit
themselves to reducing inequality to the levels
seen in 1990.
17 She said closing tax havens, which the Tax
Justice Network says hold as much as $31
trillion, or as much as a third of all global wealth,
could yield $189bn in additional tax revenues.
Guardian News and Media 2013
First published in The Guardian, 19/01/13

1 The vast fortunes made by the worlds richest

100 billionaires are driving up inequality and
hindering the worlds ability to tackle poverty,
according to Oxfam.

10 She said: We can no longer pretend that

the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably
benefit the many too often the reverse is true.

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Charity says $240bn amassed by 100 richest

people last year would be enough to end
extreme poverty four times over
Phillip Inman, economics correspondent
19 January, 2013

9 She said studies show that countries suffer low

levels of investment and growth as workers are
forced to survive on a smaller share of
total incomes.

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Billionaires fortunes hinder fight

against poverty, says Oxfam

CA

Level 3

Billionaires adding to poverty

Level 3

Advanced

3 Comprehension check
Answer these questions with information from the article.
1. How much did the worlds richest 100 billionaires increase their wealth by in 2012?
2. How much money would be needed to end world poverty?
3. Why does the article criticize even those US billionaires who do donate part of their wealth?
4. In what way do US billionaires actions differ from those in China, Russia and the Middle East?
5. As the rich get richer, why do the poor get poorer?
6. What are the World Bank and the IMF trying to do to stop the gap widening even further?
7. In which country is financial inequality most extreme?
8. In what way is it claimed that billionaires cause environmental damage?
9. What does Oxfam want world leaders to do first?
10. What one action could relieve much of the poverty in the world?

4 Expressions
Find the following expressions in the article. Check your answers, then use the expressions in sentences
of your own.
1. If one thing exists or happens in this way, the second thing suffers or is not done well because of the first.
(para 2)
2. accuse someone or suggest that they are guilty of something bad (para 4)
3. end something so that it no longer exists (para 4)

5 Vocabulary building
Barbara Stocking says extreme wealth is

economically inefficient, politically corrosive,

socially divisive and environmentally destructive.

Complete the table below with words derived from the adjectives she used.
noun

verb

adjective

adverb

inefficient
corrosive
divisive

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NEWS LESSONS / Billionaires adding to poverty / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013

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destructive

Billionaires adding to poverty

Level 3

Advanced

6 Discussion

What were your immediate feelings on reading this article?

Do you think that world poverty can be blamed on or relieved by the worlds richest people?

7 Writing
Keeping the topic of this article and Oxfams report in mind, write either:
a. a letter to a newspaper
b. an email to a billionaire
c. a proposal as to how wealth could be more evenly distributed.

8 Webquest

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NEWS LESSONS / Billionaires adding to poverty / Advanced

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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013

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Go to http://www.oxfam.org/ and find out more about Oxfams work.