Chapter 1 | Page 39 impact on the level of enjoyment of ESC rights and have had significant negative impacts on the overall standard of living for many.118 Yet, while the global financial and economic crises have pushed millions of people into penury― often as a result of the government policy actions to address the crisis―at the same time the number of wealthy people and their overall net wealth have increased.119 According to Oxfam, for instance, in 2014 the richest 1 percent owned 48 percent of the world’s wealth while the least well-off 80 percent currently own just 5.5 percent.120 Taking into consideration this imbalance in resource ownership is critical to understanding resource challenges to ESC rights. State efforts to increase resources can also have serious political and social repercussions if not properly implemented. For example, various interest groups and issues around the political power balance could easily derail a taxbroadening reform programme, not only holding back future revenue but also seriously damaging political stability and economic progress. Therefore, as Philip Alston and Gerard Quinn argue, flexibility for States to implement ESC rights in a progressive realisation framework should be seen as a necessary accommodation to the ‘vagaries of economic circumstances’.121 The delicate balance that needs to be struck in addressing resource mobilisation and allocation decisions needs to be recognised. In the case of ESC rights, political and economic contexts are ‘necessarily and fundamentally determinative’122 and must encompass ‘political, social and 118 For example see, Georg Wenzelburger, 'Fact or fiction? Welfare cuts and fiscal adjustments' (2014) 34(01) Journal of Public Policy 63-92. 119 Paul O'Connell, 'Let Them Eat Cake: Socio-Economic Rights in an Age of Austerity' in Aoife Nolan, Rory O'Connell and Colin Harvey (eds), Human Rights and Public Finance: Budgets and the Promotion of Economic and Social Rights (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2013) 59, 65. 120 Oxfam, Wealth: Having it all and wanting more <http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/ publications/wealth-having-it-all-and-wanting-more-338125>. Oxfam further identifies that in 2014, the richest 85 billionaires have the same wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population. 121 Alston and Quinn, above n 13, 175. 122 Saul, Kinley and Mowbray, above n 33, 170.