The crises and wars of recent years have widened the gap between rich and poor in the world even further. This emerges from a study that the development organization Oxfam published before the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Accordingly, the five richest people in the world – all men – have more than doubled their wealth since 2020. At the same time, almost five billion people, the poorest 60 percent, became even poorer.
The published study is based on data from various sources. For example, Oxfam combined Forbes estimates of billionaires’ wealth with Credit Suisse estimates of global wealth.
Soon to be the first trillionaire?
In its evaluation, the emergency aid and development organization comes to the conclusion that at the current growth rate, the world could have its first dollar trillionaire in just ten years. Global poverty, on the other hand, would not be completely overcome even in 230 years.
“Billionaires are getting richer, the working class is struggling and the poor are living in despair. This is the unfortunate state of the global economy,” writes US Senator Bernie Sanders in the foreword to the study. Never before has there been such inequality in income and wealth. The greed, arrogance and irresponsibility are also unprecedented.
Billionaire wealth is growing faster than inflation
The five richest men have earned an average of $14 million an hour since 2020, according to Oxfam data. Her wealth rose from $405 billion in 2020 to $869 billion most recently. The total wealth of all billionaires grew three times faster than the rate of inflation.
At the same time, 4.77 billion people, the poorest 60 percent of humanity, have lost a total of $20 billion in wealth since 2020. According to Oxfam, wages for 791 million workers did not keep up with the inflation rate. Each of them lost an average of almost a month’s wages in two years.
The CEO of Oxfam Germany, Serap Altinisik, sees society facing an ever-increasing test. “While billions of people endure the shock waves of pandemic, inflation and war, the fortunes of billionaires are booming,” she said. Inequality increases gender-specific and racial discrimination because marginalized groups such as women or non-white people are particularly affected. “It undermines democracy and contributes significantly to the climate crisis becoming a catastrophe,” said Altinisik.
Oxfam: Wealth tax could bring billions in Germany
Oxfam is therefore calling for taxation of high wealth. The funds from this would have to be invested in climate protection, the expansion of education, health care and social security. This applies in Germany as well as worldwide. In Germany, too, the total assets of the five richest citizens have grown, adjusted for inflation, by almost three quarters (73.85 percent) since 2020, from around 89 to around 155 billion US dollars.
The development organization proposes the following wealth tax model: two percent on assets exceeding $5 million, three percent on assets exceeding $50 million and five percent on assets exceeding $1 billion.
According to Oxfam estimates, this could generate $93.6 billion in revenue per year in Germany alone. Just over 200,000 people would have to pay higher taxes, around 0.24 percent of the population. Globally, a wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires could raise $2.5 trillion every year, according to Oxfam.
