Head of research at the ASI, Ben Southwood, has had his comments on Oxfam's inequality statistics featured in articles for the BBC and the Spectator. Ben argues that the statistics they publishes are deeply misleading. From the Spectator:
Ben Southwood from the Adam Smith Institute makes the following observation:
‘Oxfam is once again misleading everyone with its punchy wealth inequality stats.
‘By Oxfam’s measures, the poorest people in the world are recent Harvard graduates with student debt piles. The bottom 2bn don’t have zero wealth, but rather about $500bn of negative wealth.
Read the full Spectator piece here.
From the BBC:
The Adam Smith Institute's head of research Ben Southwood also said the data was "misleading".
"More meaningful measures show greater equality. Those in the middle and bottom of the world income distribution have all got pay rises of around 40% between 1988-2008. Global inequality of life expectancy and height are narrowing too—showing better nutrition and better healthcare where it matters most.