Global Inequality is Escalating

The world’s top 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of the $42 trillion in new wealth created since 2020, according to Oxfam in a report entitled “Survival of the Richest” which was released to coincide with the start of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The share was almost twice as much money as the amount obtained by the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, according to the report.

Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day, while at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, the report said.

At the same time, half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants, Oxfam said, putting them on track to pass on $5 trillion to their heirs, more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Africa.

Oxfam said a 5 percent tax on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.

Oxfam is calling for countries to introduce new taxes enabling them to invest much more in health and education – things that matter to everyone.