Wealth distribution

[Sarmatian]

It seems that the phrase "the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer" has never been more true than today. A British institute, Oxfam, published a report that 85 (yes, eighty five) richest people in the world hold as much wealth as 3.5 billions poorest people. The number of people that can fit on a single bus holds as much wealth as half of mankind. Those 3.5 billions hold only 0.7% of the world's wealth. Almost half of the world's wealth is currently in the hands of the richest 1%.

We've known for a very long time that the gap between rich and poor is getting bigger, and with money, comes power and influence. In almost all western countries, despite the rich having immense increase in profits, they managed to lower the amount of taxes they pay. This is especially true in USA. Since 1980, the amount of wealth held by 1% of richest Americans increased 150%. Practically all wealth increase since 2009, 95% of it, went to the richest, while the bottom 90% of Americans have become poorer.

Simply put, the difference in wealth is so huge that it dwarfs the difference in wealth in middle ages between aristocracy and peasants.

I'm pretty sure that concentration of so much money, and by extension power and influence, is a very serious threat to democracy. Sure, we get to pick our leaders, but we pick from a few offered to us who are funded by those 1% and who appear in the media owned by those 1%.

What do you guys think of this? Can the trend be stopped? Will it lead to instability and be a threat to democracy in the long run?