World's wealthiest net worth is 1% twice of rest of world, reveals Oxfam report

Over the past two years, the richest 1 per cent have bagged nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world's population combined, according to the latest Oxfam report on Monday, January 16, 2023.  

Oxfam's annual inequality report, released on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, said that the billionaire fortunes are increasing by USD 2.7 billion per day, and at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where inflation outpaces wages.

In its report, Oxfam said that a tax of up to 5 per cent on the world's multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise USD 1.7 trillion per year, which will be enough to lift two billion people out of poverty.

The report, titled 'Survival of the Richest', added that the richest one per cent had captured nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth USD 42 trillion created since 2020, nearly twice as much money as the bottom 99 per cent of the world's population. 

In the past decade, the richest 1 per cent have captured roughly half of all new wealth while stressing that extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased concurrently for the first time in 25 years.

Oxfam International Director Gabriela Bucher said, "While ordinary people make daily sacrifices for necessities such as food, the ultra-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. With only two years under its belt, this decade is already shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires."

"Taxing the super-rich and large corporations is the door out of today's overlapping crises. It is the time to demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the wealthy result in their wealth 'trickling down' to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the wealthy have shown that a rising tide does not lift all ships, only the superyachts," she added.
 
The Oxfam study added that during the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis years since 2020, the richest 1 per cent captured USD 26 trillion (63 per cent) of all new wealth, while the rest of the world received USD 16 trillion (37 per cent).

In addition, the report said that a billionaire gains approximately USD 1.7 million for every USD 1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 per cent. 

Billionaire fortunes have increased by USD 2.7 billion per day, adding to a decade of historic gains, with the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled in the last ten years, Oxfam said.

The calculations are based on the most up-to-date and comprehensive data sources, with figures on the wealthiest people coming from the Forbes billionaire list.

Billionaire wealth will see a surge in 2022 due to rapidly rising food and energy profits, with 95 food and energy corporations more than doubling their profits last year, according to the report.

"They made USD 306 billion in windfall profits and distributed USD 257 billion (84 per cent) to wealthy shareholders," it continued.

It cited the Walton dynasty, which owns half of Walmart, as receiving USD 8.5 billion in the last year, and Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of major energy corporations, as seeing his wealth increase by USD 42 billion (46 per cent) in 2022 alone. The report added that the excess corporate profits had driven at least half of inflation in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

"Women and girls frequently eat the least and last, and they account for nearly 60 per cent of the world's hungry. As per the World Bank, we are likely witnessing the greatest increase in global inequality and poverty since World War II," according to Oxfam.

Oxfam has called for a systemic and broad increase in super-rich taxation to recoup crisis gains driven by public money and profiteering.

"Decades of tax cuts for the wealthiest and corporations have deepened inequality, with the poorest people in many countries paying higher tax rates than billionaires," the report added. 

Following Oxfam, one of the world's wealthiest men, Elon Musk, paid a 'true tax rate' of about 3 per cent between 2014 and 2018, whereas Aber Christine, a flour vendor in Uganda, earns USD 80 per month and pays a 40 per cent tax rate.

Only four cents of every tax dollar now comes from wealth taxes, and half of the world's billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants. 

Noting that taxes on the wealthy were once much higher, Oxfam said that governments in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas had reduced income tax rates on the wealthy over the last forty years.

Simultaneously, they have raised taxes on goods and services, which fall disproportionately on the poorest people and exacerbate gender inequality, the report added. 

"Taxing the super-wealthy is a strategic precondition for reducing inequality and reviving democracy. This is necessary for innovation. To improve public services. To create happier and healthier societies. And, to address the climate crisis, investments in solutions that counter the insane emissions of the world's wealthiest must be made," said Bucher. 

Following the latest analysis by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and the Patriotic Millionaires, a 5 per cent annual wealth tax on the world's multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise USD 1.7 trillion per year, which will be enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty, according to the Oxfam.

(With inputs from PTI)

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