The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes since 2020, according to the charity Oxfam, which is urging states to reject the ultra-rich’s power over tax policies.
According to a charity report released this week as the world’s elite attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, their fortune increased from $405 billion in 2020 to $869 billion last year.
However, Oxfam reported that roughly five billion people around the world had been poorer since 2020.
Despite numerous crises that have wreaked havoc on the global economy since the start of this decade, including the Covid epidemic, billionaires are now $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020.
“We cannot continue with these levels of obscene inequality,” Amitabh Behar, the interim director of Oxfam International, told AFP.
He said it showed that “capitalism is at the service of the super-rich”.
With riches among the world’s wealthiest expanding as they are, he predicted that the world would witness its first “trillionaire” within a decade.
Oxfam’s annual report on global inequality is generally released shortly before the Davos summit begins on Monday in the Swiss Alpine resort of the same name.
The organization expressed alarm about rising global inequality, with the wealthiest individuals and corporations accumulating not only more wealth as stock prices rise, but also much more power.
Corporate power ‘driving inequality’
“Corporate power is used to drive inequality — by squeezing workers and enriching wealthy shareholders, dodging taxes and privatising the state,” Oxfam said.
It accused corporations of causing “inequality by waging a sustained and highly effective war on taxation,” which had far-reaching implications.
According to Oxfam, states turned over power to monopolies, allowing companies to determine wages, food prices, and which medications people may get.
“Around the world, members of the private sector have relentlessly pushed for lower rates, more loopholes, less transparency and other measures aimed at enabling companies to contribute as little as possible to public coffers,” Oxfam added.
According to the charity, firms have been able to pay reduced corporate taxes as a result of intense lobbying over tax policymaking, robbing governments of funds that could have been used to financially help the poorest members of society.
According to Oxfam, corporate taxes in OECD countries have declined dramatically, from 48 percent in 1980 to 23.1% in 2022.
To redress the imbalance, Oxfam proposed a wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires, which it estimates could generate $1.8 trillion each year.
The nongovernmental organization also advocated for a restriction on CEO pay and the break-up of corporate monopolies.