This is surely a mutated version of a statement from the 1996 Human
Development Report (published by the UN Development Programme,
http://www.undp.org). According to _West Africa_ magazine (5-11 August 1996,
p1227):
"According to the Human Development Report 1996, the net worth of the
358 richest people - _Forbes Magazine_ of the US puts the number at
447 dollar billionaires - is equal to the combined income of the
poorest 45 per cent of the world population, that is 2.3 billion people."
You can also see those numbers here:
<a href="http://www.undp.org/undp/news/hdr96pr1.htm">UNDP Press Release</a>
I don't know which issue of _Forbes_ lists the billionaires, but _West
Africa_ goes on to say:
"The number of billionaires in the world has risen from 147 to 447 [between
1960 and 1991, I think -MP], and for just last year, the number rose by
25 per cent... _Forbes_ says there are 149 billionaires in the US, 51 in
Germany and 40 in Japan. Others are Hong Kong, 17; Mexico, 15; France, 14;
Brazil, 10; Thailand, 10; and the UK, 7. The US's leading billionaires
are Bill Gates with $18bn; Warren Buffet, $15bn; Paul Sacher, $13bn;
Lee Shau Kee, $12bn; and Tsai Wanlin, $12bn."
_West Africa_ lists global GDP for 1993 as $23 trillion. $447 billion
is just under 2% of that, so perhaps we can say that all those
billionaires control at least 1% of the world's wealth.
-mitch
http://www.thehub.com.au/~mitch