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World’s Five Richest Men Double Wealth Since 2020, Oxfam says
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By Hugh Fort in US business news, posted January 16, 2024
The richest men in the world have doubled their wealth in the last four years as the poorest people become poorer, according to new research from Oxfam.
The charity says the world will see its first trillionaire in the next 10 years, but won't see poverty eradicated for another 229 years.
The report, called "Inequality Inc", has been published as global leaders gather in Davos in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
It examines increasing billionaire wealth and rising corporate and monopoly power.
It highlights how this exploits and increases the inequalities of gender and race, as well as economic inequality.
Seven of 10 richest companies run by billionaires
The report found seven of the world's 10 biggest companies have a billionaire as CEO or principal share holder.
The corporations are worth a combined $10.2 trillion (£8.1 trillion), more than the combined GDPs of all countries in Africa and Latin America.
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It also used Wealth X data, to find the world's richest one percent own 43 percent of all global financial assets.
At the other end of the scale, the report finds people around the world are working harder and longer hours, often for poverty wages, in dangerous jobs.
Oxfam found wages had fallen for nearly 800 million workers in 52 countries.
These workers have lost a combined $1.5 trillion (£1.2 trillion) over the last two years - around 25 days of lost wages for each person.
Aleema Shivji, Oxfam’s interim Chief Executive said: “These extremes cannot be accepted as the new norm, the world can’t afford another decade of division.
"Extreme poverty in the poorest countries is still higher than it was pre-pandemic, yet a small number of super-rich men are racing to become the world’s first trillionaire within the next ten years.
“This ever-widening gulf between the rich and the rest isn’t accidental, nor is it inevitable.
"Governments worldwide are making deliberate political choices that enable and encourage this distorted concentration of wealth, while hundreds of millions of people live in poverty.
"A fairer economy is possible, one that works for us all. What’s needed are concerted policies that deliver fairer taxation and support for everyone, not just the privileged.”
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Billionaires $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020
The data shows billionaires are $3.3 trillion (£2.6 trillion) richer than in 2020 - the times the rate of inflation.
The wealth of the five richest men has increased by 114 percent in that time.
At the same time, the wealth of the 4.77 billion people fell by 0.2 percent in real terms.
Big business set to smash annual profit records
Oxfam found 148 of the world's biggest corporations pulled in $1.8 trillion in total net profits in the year to June 2023.
This is a 52 percent jump compared to the average net profits from 2018-2021.
The report finds of every $100 of profit made by 96 major corporations between July 2022 and June 2023, $82 was paid out to shareholders.
Progressive Wealth Taxes
Oxfam is pushing government to introduce progressive wealth taxes to both reduce inequality and increase tax revenue for public services.
It says a wealth tax on British millionaires and billionaires at a rate of between one and two percent on net wealth above £10 million, could generate £22 billion a year.
Julia Davies is a founding member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, a nonpartisan group of British millionaires campaigning for a wealth tax.
She said: “Only four pence in every tax pound comes from taxes on wealth.
"It is miniscule, especially when compared to income at 42 pence in the pound. I am fortunate enough to be able to contribute more and want to do so.
"People argue that millionaires like me can just donate more voluntarily to the Treasury – but this clearly isn’t a solution.
"Just like income taxes, wealth taxes should be mandatory, not optional.
“Just imagine what £22 billion a year invested in public services and infrastructure could pay for; improving the lives of every one of us who live in the UK and providing our elderly, young and vulnerable with the care and support they need and deserve.
"Investment in a green economy, improving our care services and giving every child, whatever their background, the chance to succeed.
"It’s time to stop treating taxation of wealth as off the table and get on with using it to invest in building the future the British people deserve.”
What Oxfam wants
- Rein in corporate power – break up monopolies, legislating for living wages, capping CEO pay, and new taxes on the super-rich and corporations, including permanent wealth and excess profit taxes.
- Revitalizing the state - ensure universal provision of healthcare and education, and exploring publicly delivered goods and public options in sectors from energy to transportation.
- Reinventing business - create and prome a new generation of companies that do not put shareholders first – including worker cooperatives and fair-trade businesses. And prioritising and providing financial support to equitable businesses; not to companies that are missing their net-zero targets, paying below living wages, or dodging taxes.
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