The one simple trick to fix the world's growing economic inequality

62 people claim the same amount of wealth as 3.6 billion combined.

People starve to death on American soil while the top 1 percent enjoy a lifestyle most of us cannot fathom. With 62 individuals owning more riches than 3.6 billion people combined, what can be deduced but a desperate need to close the ever-increasing wage gap?

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In a recent briefing released by community-based charity organization Oxfam, it was discovered that the top one percent "have more wealth than the rest of the world combined."

The 44-page document included five calculations explaining the most shocking wealth-to-poverty ratio in over a century:

• In 2015, just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.6 billion people - the bottom half of humanity. This figure is down from 388 individuals as recently as 2010.
• The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44% in the five years since 2010 - that's an increase of more than half a trillion dollars ($542bn), to $1.76 trillion
• Meanwhile, the wealth of the bottom half fell by just over a trillion dollars in the same period - a drop of 41%.
• Since the turn of the century, the poorest half of the world's population has received just 1% of the total increase in global wealth, while half of that increase has gone to the top 1%.
• The average annual income of the poorest 10% of people in the world has risen by less than $3 each year in almost a quarter of a century. Their daily income has risen by less than a single cent every year.

Other important points include statistics indicating the risks growing inequalities pose to economic expansion and social cohesion, noting that it is the responsibility of individuals governments to join together and work to discover a way to close the gap.

Mark Goldring, Oxfam GB chief executive, believes the elimination of tax havens are a necessary step to end wealth inequality. This one simple fix could revers the problem by allowing governments to tax wealth.

"It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the world population owns no more than a small group of the global super-rich - so few, you could fit them all on a single coach.

"World leaders' concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action to ensure that those at the bottom get their fair share of economic growth. In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake.

"We need to end the era of tax havens which has allowed rich individuals and multinational companies to avoid their responsibilities to society by hiding ever increasing amounts of money offshore.

"Tackling the veil of secrecy surrounding the UK's network of tax havens would be a big step towards ending extreme inequality. Three years after he made his promise to make tax dodgers 'wake up and smell the coffee', [sic] it is time for David Cameron to deliver."

In calling on leaders to take action, Oxfam specifies policy makers should "pay workers a living wage and close the gap with executive rewards ... Promote women's economic equality and women's rights ... Keep the influence of powerful elites in check ... Change the global system for R&D and the pricing of medicines so that everyone has access to appropriate and affordable medicines ... Share the tax burden fairly to level the playing field ... and Use progressive public spending to tackle inequality."

Each of the propositions includes how each can be implemented and concludes with a priority to "all world leaders to agree [to] a global approach to end the era of tax havens."

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