In a new report released in conjunction with the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam has said that the world’s top 1% have taken nearly two-thirds of the US$42 trillion in new wealth created since 2020.
According to Oxfam’s “Survival of the Richest” report, which was released on Monday, the share was almost twice as much money as that earned by the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population.
At least 1.7 billion workers now live in nations where inflation is outpacing wages, the report said, while billionaire fortunes are growing by US $2.7 billion per day.
“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.”
Business and political leaders from around the world gather annually at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss political and economic issues that are important to the entire world.
The summit will be attended by 52 heads of state and nearly 600 CEOs from Monday to Friday.