Lyndon Johnson once said of his unrelenting critics that if he walked on the Potomac, headlines would criticise him for not being able to swim.

I was reminded of this when I read Oxfam New Zealand’s comments surrounding the release of the latest Oxfam report “Reward Work, not Wealth”. Among many evils, Oxfam decried billionaires and wealth inequality in particular.

The degree of wealth inequality within some developed countries is an issue to be reflected upon. However, when one takes a dry-eyed look at overall and longer term evidence (Max Roser , ourworldindata.org), Oxfam’s concerns might be said to be overstated.

Across our planet’s entire population, and in human history, we have never been richer nor have those in extreme poverty had more cause for optimism. Furthermore, wealth inequality between developed and lesser developed nations has never been lower.

In 1970, out of a global population of 3.69 billion, 60% (2.22 billion) lived in extreme poverty. In 2015, out of a global population of 7.35 billion less than 10% (705 million) lived in extreme poverty. This decline is unprecedented in economic history.

From 2008 to 2015 the rate of decline increased further such that every day there were 217,000 fewer people in extreme poverty than the day before.

Oxfam New Zealand called for fairer taxation. As far as the income tax base goes, the better published and accepted evidence shows that the bottom 60% of New Zealand households receive more in government economic redistribution than they pay in tax. The top 40% (and then overwhelmingly the top 10%) pay far more in tax than they receive. This is scarcely unfair I would venture to suggest.

Further, New Zealand's top 1% and top 10% own much smaller fractions of measured national wealth than do their counterparts in Canada, Finland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Among the 39 countries assessed, New Zealand's top 1% and top 10% have the 9th and 11th smallest wealth shares respectively. 

On the Gini wealth inequality measure, in 2017, out of 171 countries, 79 countries had greater wealth inequality than New Zealand. Finally, New Zealand enjoyed the world's fourth highest percentage increase in total household wealth from 2016 to 2017. This was broadly shared.

On the Credit Suisse data used by Oxfam, the world's most unequal country is Venezuela.

I am sure LBJ would have had something acidic to say about that.