A new report shows the adverse effect of the pandemic on women’s rights, wealth inequality and global living conditions.
DAVOS: The annual World Economic Forum begins in Switzerland after a gap of nearly two-and-a-half years. Global leaders and major financial institutions will converge upon Davos over the 4-day affair.
Meanwhile, Oxfam, a British organisation focused on the alleviation of global poverty, released a comprehensive report on Covid poverty. The piece titled “profiting from pain” targets the Davos-bound rich and famous for converting a dire economic situation into billions of dollars.
This study comes on the back of widespread economic fallout due to Covid-19. The contrast between a swiss getaway for the rich and countries like Sri Lanka slipping further into crisis is apparent.
The report begins with an “Urgent call to tax the rich amid a swell in billionaire wealth and a global cost-of-living crisis”
“Governments must act now to rein in extreme wealth. They must agree now to increase the taxation of wealth and corporate windfall profits.” It said. “Governments must use this money to protect ordinary people across the world and reduce inequality and suffering.”
Poverty and Billionaires:
One million people every 33 hours are being pushed into poverty. Meanwhile, a new billionaire is created on average every 30 hours during the pandemic. This shows that in the same time it takes to create a single Billionaire, one million people could experience poverty.
Oxfam also notes that the cycle of the wealth gap feeds into itself, contributing to rising living costs. “On top of soaring billionaire wealth, during the pandemic there has also been a profits bonanza in the food, energy, pharmaceutical, and technology sectors, as this brief highlights. Corporate monopolies are particularly prevalent in these sectors, and billionaires who own large stakes in companies within them have seen their wealth balloon even more.” read an excerpt.
The case for a COVID-19 windfall tax:
The pandemic has added an excess of 570 billionaires to the world, collectively worth $12.7 trillion. The wealth of these nearly 3,000 individuals makes up 12% of the global GDP, a massive hike from 4.4% in 2002. Additionally, just the top 20 in that list of uber-rich moguls are worth more than the GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa! Elon Musk, for instance, saw his wealth increase by 699% starting in 2019.
“The single most urgent and structural action that governments must take now is to implement highly progressive taxation measures that in turn must be used to invest in powerful and proven measures that reduce inequality, such as universal social protection and universal healthcare.” said the report to ease the adverse effects of wealth inequality.
The way forward:
In an effort to appeal to the legislative bodies of the world, Oxfam proposed the following taxation measures:
- An urgent pandemic excess profits tax on the world’s largest corporations
- An urgent one-off solidarity wealth taxes on new billionaire wealth
- A permanent wealth tax on the richest
