According to Oxfam International, the pandemic makes the rich richer but leads to more people living in poverty.
The world’s ten wealthiest men have more than doubled their riches during the first two years of the pandemic. Their entire fortune grew from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion – at a rate of $1.3 billion per day. But the incomes of 99 percent of people fell, and over 160 million more were forced into poverty.
“Even if they lost 99.999 percent of their fortune tomorrow, they would still be wealthier than 99 percent of all the people worldwide,” Oxfam said.
Oxfam published a new report, “Inequality Kills,” at the start of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda. Based on the news, inequality contributes to the death of at least 21,000 people each day. This is a conservative finding based on deaths worldwide caused by COVID-19 challenges.
WEF’s Davos Agenda is an annual event of corporate and political leaders, celebrities, activists, economists, and journalists. They usually gather in the Swiss ski resort for panel discussions and parties.
But for two consecutive years, the meeting is done virtually. The emergence of the Omicron variant prevented the plans to return to an in-person event. This week’s discussions will focus on the future path of the pandemic, vaccine Elon Musk equity, and the energy transition.
Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said the charity scheduled the report each year to coincide with Davos. It aims to attract the attention of business, economic and political elites.
“What’s happening this year is off the scale,” he said. “While a new billionaire is made almost every day during this pandemic, 99 percent of the world’s population are struggling because of lockdowns and other pandemic-related issues. As a result, 160 million more people were forced into poverty.”
“I think something is wrong with our economic system,” he added.
Ironically, the pandemic makes the rich richer but forces most people to live in poverty.
Based on the Forbes data quoted Oxfam, the world’s richest men are:
1. Elon Musk- Tesla Motors
2. Jeff Bezos – Amazon
3. Bernard Arnault and Family – LVMH
4. Bill Gates – Microsoft
5. Larry Ellison – Oracle Corporation
6. Larry Page – Google
7. Sergey Brin – Google
8. Mark Zuckerberg – Meta
9. Steve Ballmer – Investor and former CEO of Microsoft
10. Warren Buffet – Berkshire Hathaway
Collectively, their wealth grew from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion between March 2020 and November 2021. But there is a notable variable between them. Elon Musk’s fortune increased by over 1,000 percent, while Bill Gates’ rose moderately by 30 percent.
Oxfam’s decision to analyze the growth from the pandemic’s start, when global share prices dropped, also spins the findings slightly. The wealth of the world’s top billionaires are usually tied up in their stock holdings, which decreased sharply in March 2020. It means that the subsequent increase was from this lower base.
If Oxfam had used the pre-pandemic data as the baseline, the growth would have been less noticeable.
But one of the report’s authors, Max Lawson, said that:
“If you take the fortune of billionaires in mid-February 2020, we estimate that the increase in the top ten wealthiest men is more like 70 percent. It would still show a record-breaking growth.”
