The world’s wealthiest people could eliminate extreme poverty if they gave up just one year of their profits, according to Oxfam.

The charity said in a new report that income inequality has gotten so out of hand that the richest 100 billionaires should do something to solve the poverty problem. After all, their accumulation of wealth has negatively impacted the poor’s ability to obtain good jobs and earn a stable living.

Oxfam recommends that the rich donate all of their earnings from 2012, which totaled about $240 billion. This amount would be more than enough to wipe out extreme poverty, the group claimed. In fact, it would do so four times over.

The report also suggested that world leaders take action to reduce the widening gap between rich and poor, with a goal of bringing inequality back down to at least 1990 levels. Oxfam proposed that closing tax havens and taxing capital gains at normal rates would raise at least $189 billion a year.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Billionaires' Fortunes Hinder Fight Against Poverty, Says Oxfam (by Phillip Inman, The Guardian)

The Cost Of Inequality: How Wealth And Income Extremes Hurt Us All (Oxfam) (pdf)

Would Taxing the Rich Really Hurt Economic Growth? (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Large Majority of Americans Now Believe There is Conflict between Rich and Poor (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)