Oxfam issued a report in conjunction with the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the top one percent of global income holders have taken over two-thirds of the $42 trillion in new wealth produced since 2020.
The disparity in the money shared by the top one percent is almost twice when compared to the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, according to Oxfam’s “Survival of the Richest” report released on Monday.
In addition, according to Oxfam, half of the world’s billionaires reside in nations that do not impose inheritance taxes on their direct descendants, putting them on course to leave $5 trillion to their heirs—more than Africa’s entire GDP. Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7 billion a day the report said.
“While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires — a roaring ‘20s boom for the world’s richest,” said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International.
“Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today’s overlapping crises. It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships — just the superyachts.”
A 5 percent tax on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion every year which is enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, according to Oxfam. Global business and political elites gather annually at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to address political and economic topics of interest to the whole world. This year’s summit will be attended by 52 heads of state and nearly 600 CEOs.