Today the three richest people in the world control assets exceeding the GDPs of the 48 poorest countries. The 225 richest people in the western world control over $1 trillion, equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of the total world population. The wealth/income ratio between the 20 percent of people living in the richest areas of the world and the 20 percent of people living in the poorest areas of the world has grown from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in the late 1990s.