Charity says billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020, as annual meeting of business elites takes place.
The world's five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes since 2020, charity Oxfam said, sounding the alarm about unchecked corporate power as business elites hold their high-profile annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The five men have a combined fortune of $869 billion after growing their fortunes at a rate of $14 million an hour over the past four years, Oxfam said in its “Inequality Inc.” report, released Monday.
Despite the growth in the fortunes of the five (LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffet, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk), 5 1 billion people have become poorer during the same period, Oxfam said.
Billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer today than in 2020, while a billionaire runs 7 in 10 of the world's largest companies, the London-based charity said.
If current trends continue, the world will have its first billionaire within a decade, but poverty will not be eradicated for 229 years, according to the anti-poverty group.
Oxfam International acting chief executive Amitabh Behar said no one should have $1 billion.
“We are witnessing the beginning of a decade of division, with billions of people bearing the economic waves of the pandemic, inflation and war, while the fortunes of billionaires soar. This inequality is not a coincidence; The billionaire class is ensuring that corporations give them more wealth at the expense of everyone else,” Behar said in a statement released alongside the report.
“The unbridled power of corporations and monopolies is an inequality-generating machine: by squeezing workers, evading taxes, privatizing the state, and fueling climate collapse, corporations are channeling infinite wealth to their ultra-rich owners. But they are also channeling power, undermining our democracies and our rights.”
Oxfam traditionally publishes its annual inequality report just before the opening of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), launched by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab in the early 1970s to champion “stakeholder capitalism.”
The charity said corporations pay around a third less in taxes than in past decades as a result of a lobbying “war on taxes”, depriving governments of money that could be used to benefit the poorest in society. .
Oxfam said governments should cap CEO pay, break up private monopolies and introduce a wealth tax to raise $1.8 trillion each year.
“We have the evidence. We know the history. Public power can curb runaway corporate power and inequality, shaping the market to be fairer and free from billionaire control. “Governments must intervene to dismantle monopolies, empower workers, tax these huge corporate profits and, crucially, invest in a new era of public goods and services,” Behar said.
