One Jarring Stat Reveals Just How Vast Mexico's Wealth Gap Has Become Christopher Woody - Business Insider
go to original August 27, 2015

VICE News heads to northern Mexico to investigate the working conditions on farms, where day laborers and their children handpick crops, earning as much in a day as their US counterparts make in an hour. (VICE News)

Carlos Slim is the richest man in Mexico, with a reported fortune of nearly $70 billion.

Slim's wealth is so immense that it equals 6.3% of Mexico's gross domestic product, a percentage greater than the combined income of the poorest 20% of Mexicans — nearly 25 million people — who account for just 4.9% of the country’s GDP, according to a report from El Daily Post.

Admittedly, net worth is not metric that compares cleanly with income. Nevertheless, you still get a sense of the scale of Slim's wealth.

Slim is in exclusive company: Between 1996 and 2014, the number of Mexican billionaires grew to 16 from 15, but their average worth surged to $8.9 billion from $1.7 billion.

Meanwhile, the bottom 20% of Mexicans have an average worth of $80.

Read the rest at Business Insider

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