About 573 people participated
Billionaires as of 2020, bringing the worldwide total to 2,668, according to an analysis released Sunday by Oxfam. That means a new billionaire has
about every 30 hours on average, so far during the pandemic.
Report, that
based on data compiled by Forbes, which looks at the rise in inequality over the past two years. It
To be
the time coincides with the start of
World Economic Forum annual meeting in DavosSwitzerland, a collection of several
richest people and world leaders.
Billionaires have seen their totals
net value increased by $3.8 trillion, or 42%, to $12.7 trillion during the pandemic. A large part of the increase was driven by a strong stock market, aided by governments pumping money into the global economy to soften the financial blow of the coronavirus.
Much of the wealth skyrocketed in the first year of the pandemic. Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at Oxfam, said it then continued to hold up and fell a bit.
At the same time, Covid-19, growing inequality and
food prices increase can push up to 263 million people in
extremely poor Oxfam said in a report released last month this year, reversing decades of progress.
“I have never seen such a rapid rise in poverty and growth in wealth at the same time in history,” Lawson said. “It’s going to hurt a lot of people.”
Benefit from high prices
Consumers around the world are competing with
Rising food and energy costsbut corporations in these industries and their leaders are benefiting from price increases, Oxfam said.
Food and agribusiness billionaires have seen their total wealth grow by $382 billion, or 45%, over the past two years, after adjusting for inflation. About 62 food billionaires have been created since 2020.
Meanwhile, the net worth of peers in the oil, gas and coal sectors has increased by $53 billion, or 24%, since 2020, after adjusting for inflation.
Forty new pandemic billionaires have been created in the pharmaceutical industry, which has been at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19 and is the beneficiary of billions of dollars in public funding.
The
technology field has spawned many billionaires, including 7 of the 10 richest people in the world, such as Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Bill Gates of Microsoft. These men have increased their wealth by $436 billion to $934 billion over the past two years, after adjusting for inflation.
Taxing the rich
To combat rising geographical inequality and help those struggling with rising prices, Oxfam is pushing governments to tax the wealthy and corporations.
It is calling for a temporary 90% tax on excess corporate profits, as well as a one-time tax on billionaires’ wealth.
The group also wants a permanent wealth tax on the super-rich. It proposes a 2% tax on properties greater than $5 million, rising to 5% on net worth over $1 billion. This could raise $2.5 trillion worldwide.
However, the wealth tax is not accepted by many governments. Attempts to tax
net worth of the richest Americans yes
failed to get promotion in Congress In recent years.
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