{"id":310400,"date":"2017-05-30T01:02:42","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T00:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/australias-billionaires-celebrate-a-wealth-boom\/"},"modified":"2017-05-30T01:02:42","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T00:02:42","slug":"australias-billionaires-celebrate-a-wealth-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/australias-billionaires-celebrate-a-wealth-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s billionaires celebrate a \u201cwealth boom\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Australia\u2019s billionaires celebrate a \u201cwealth boom\u201d<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Mike Head<br \/>\n    <br \/>29 May 2017<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>The ever-widening social gulf in Australia was put on display by last week\u2019s publication of this year\u2019s <em>Australian Financial Review<\/em> (AFR) Rich 200 List.<\/p>\n<p>Under conditions where millions of people are experiencing falling wages, worsening under-employment and deepening budget cuts to social spending, the publication proclaimed: \u201cAustralia is in the middle of a wealth boom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From a handful of billionaires before the 2008 global financial breakdown, the country now has 60. Summing up its estimates, which are from 2016, the newspaper boasted: \u201cThe top 10 wealthiest Australians are worth about $75 billion alone, while the average wealth for the 200 list members is a whopping $1.16 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The accumulation of fortunes at the expense of the vast majority of the population sped up during the year. The total wealth of the list mushroomed from $197.3 billion to $233.1 billion\u2014a rise of about 18 percent\u2014while average real wages fell. Every month, the super-rich collectively amassed another $3 billion, or $100 million per day.<\/p>\n<p>This marks an intensification of a three-decade process. Since 1984, when the Rich List was first published during the first year of the Hawke Labor government, the total holdings of those on the list has increased more than tenfold, from $20 billion.<\/p>\n<p>For those at the top of the list, the rise has been even more spectacular. Property developer Harry Triguboff, the country\u2019s biggest apartment builder, has increased his fortune since 1984 from $25 million to $11.45 billion\u2014a 485-fold bonanza.<\/p>\n<p>These results are part of an accelerating global social polarisation. According to an Oxfam report earlier this year, the world\u2019s eight richest people now collectively&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2017\/05\/29\/rich-m29.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Australia\u2019s billionaires celebrate a \u201cwealth boom\u201d By Mike Head 29 May 2017 The ever-widening social gulf in Australia was put on display by last week\u2019s publication of this year\u2019s Australian Financial Review (AFR) Rich 200 List. Under conditions where millions of people are experiencing falling wages, worsening under-employment and deepening budget cuts to social [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-310400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}