[ti:Report: Eight Men Own as Much Wealth as Half the World’s Population] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.20]A new report from a British anti-poverty organization says eight men [00:07.72]own as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people in the world. [00:16.52]The eight men include Microsoft's Bill Gates [00:21.52]and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. [00:26.56]Oxfam International released the report on Monday. [00:32.16]Oxfam is a group of international organizations [00:37.48]that seek to fight poverty around the world. [00:42.88]The group warned that public anger over inequality [00:48.17]might cause more political changes. [00:52.76]Examples of such changes, Oxfam said, [00:56.84]include the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president [01:01.92]and Britain's vote to withdraw from the E.U. [01:07.48]The report appears as international political and business leaders [01:13.00]meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. [01:18.48]This yearly event gathers leaders, experts [01:23.60]and activists to discuss important international issues. [01:30.84]Oxfam released a similar report last year. [01:34.93]That report suggested 62 people owned as much wealth as half the world's population. [01:45.16]The activist group says new information from Swiss bank Credit Suisse [01:51.76]and Forbes magazine shows that fewer people hold more of the wealth. [01:59.08]Forbes lists Bill Gates as the wealthiest individual. [02:05.52]The magazine says he is worth about $75 billion. [02:12.48]Following Gates on the list are Amancio Ortega of the Spanish clothing company Inditex [02:22.64]and American businessman Warren Buffett. [02:26.68]Also among the eight are Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu and Amazon head Jeff Bezos. [02:37.56]They are followed by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, [02:41.84]Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison [02:45.48]and former New York City mayor and media businessman Michael Bloomberg. [02:52.32]Winnie Byanyima is the executive director of Oxfam International. [02:58.88]She will be attending the World Economic Forum meetings in Switzerland. [03:04.16]She hopes to discuss the problems inequality causes with world leaders. [03:11.44]"It is obscene for so much wealth to be in the hands of so few people [03:18.56]when 1 in 10 people live on less than $2 a day," Byanyima told the Associated Press. [03:28.76]"Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; [03:35.08]it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy." [03:41.20]Oxfam offered possible solutions to economic inequality in its report. [03:48.88]These include higher taxes on wealth and income to pay for more public services. [03:57.44]The group also calls on business leaders to pay their share of taxes. [04:04.56]In addition, Oxfam calls for stronger agreements [04:09.28]between governments on fair pay for workers. [04:14.04]Max Lawson is the head of policy for Oxfam. [04:19.08]He urged extremely rich people to, in his words, "do the right thing." [04:26.32]"We have a situation where billionaires are paying less tax [04:32.20]often than their cleaner, or their secretary," [04:36.04]Lawson told the Associated Press. "That's crazy." [04:40.71]Last year, the release of financial documents known as the "Panama Papers" [04:48.20]showed how some wealthy people avoid paying taxes. [04:54.20]The leaked documents were a collection of information [04:58.96]about secret bank accounts some wealthy people used to hide their wealth. [05:06.12]On Monday, another report warned that income inequality [05:12.16]has led to a decrease in trust in governments and other institutions. [05:19.44]Edelman is one of the world's biggest marketing companies. [05:24.32]The company studied the opinions of 33,000 people [05:29.96]from 28 different international markets [05:34.40]before the start of this years' World Economic Forum. [05:39.76]Edelman said its study found the largest drop of trust in government, [05:46.56]business, media and non-governmental organizations yet. [05:53.24]The company has reported on its trust and credibility survey for 16 years. [06:00.90]Trust of chief executive officers of companies [06:04.52]is at an all-time low, according to Edelman. [06:08.82]The report added that government leaders are the least trusted group. [06:15.60]I'm Dorothy Gundy. [06:17.16]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM