The wealth of billionaires has increased more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in the previous 23 years combined.
As the world’s wealthy and powerful gather in Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022, Oxfam International warned on Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in one new billionaire every 30 hours, with nearly one million people facing extreme poverty every 33 hours this year.
The rights group also stated that as the cost of critical items climbs faster than it has in decades, billionaires in the food and energy sectors are boosting their fortunes by $1 billion every two days, according to a report released in Davos titled “Profiting from Pain.”Â
As the global elite gathered in the Swiss mountain refuge for the World Economic Forum after a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, the international charity argued it was time to tax the wealthy to help the less fortunate.
Oxfam estimates that 263 million people will fall into extreme poverty this year, at a rate of one million every 33 hours, as rising prices add to the Covid issue.
In comparison, during the pandemic, 573 people became millionaires, or one every 30 hours. The wealth of billionaires has increased more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in the previous 23 years combined. According to the report, the total wealth of the world’s billionaires currently accounts for 13.9 percent of global GDP, up from 4.4 percent in 2000.
Ms. Bucher went on to say that billionaires’ fortunes haven’t grown because they’ve become smarter or worked more. “Workers are working longer hours, for less compensation, and in less favorable working circumstances. For decades, the super-rich has manipulated the system with impunity, and now they are reaping the rewards. They’ve amassed a staggering amount of riches through privatization and monopolies, destroying regulation and workers’ rights while stashing their loot in tax havens, all with the help of governments “she continued.
“In the meantime, decades of progress on extreme poverty has reversed, and millions of people are suffering unsustainable increases in the cost of simply existing,” she said.
Oxfam has asked for a one-time “solidarity tax” on billionaires’ pandemic windfall in order to help people facing rising prices and fund a “fair and sustained recovery” from the pandemic. It also stated that it was time to “stop crisis profiteering” by imposing a 90 percent “temporary excess profit tax” on large firms’ windfall gains.
According to Oxfam, a 2% annual wealth tax on millionaires and 5% for billionaires could produce $2.52 trillion each year.
According to the report, a wealth tax would help pull 2.3 billion people out of poverty, provide enough vaccines for the entire planet, and fund universal health care for those in poorer countries.
Oxfam’s estimations were based on the Forbes billionaires list and World Bank data.
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