Oxfam says billionaires’ wealth soared in 2024, with 4 ‘minted’ every week | News about inequality
The group’s report comes as some of the world’s political and financial elite prepare for their annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.
The wealth of billionaires globally will grow three times faster in 2024 than the year before, global advocacy group Oxfam International says, as some of the world’s political and financial elite prepare to attend the annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.
In its latest assessment of global inequality timed to open a meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Oxfam said on Monday that the total wealth of billionaires rose by $2 trillion to $15 trillion last year.
The reportcalled Takers Not Makers, says there are 2,769 billionaires in the world in 2024which is an increase of 204 compared to the previous year. It was noted that at least four new billionaires were “minted” every week during the year, with three-fifths of billionaire wealth coming from inheritance, monopolies or “crony connections”.
Oxfam has predicted that at least five trillionaires will emerge over the next decade. A year ago, the group predicted that only one trillionaire would appear in that period.
“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once thought unimaginable. Failure to stop billionaires now breeds soon-to-be trillionaires. Not only has the rate of accumulation of billionaires’ wealth accelerated – threefold – but so has their power,” Oxfam International’s executive director Amitabh Behar said in a statement.
The group warned that US President-elect Donald Trump’s policies would “further fan the flames of inequality”.
On average, a billionaire’s wealth increased by $2 million a day, Oxfam reported. The 10 richest billionaires got richer by an average of 100 million dollars a day. Even if they lost 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would still be billionaires, it said.
In contrast, the report says the number of people living below the World Bank’s poverty line has “barely moved” since the 1990s, and the number people who are starving rises.
The report is based on data from sources including billionaire wealth estimates made by the American business magazine Forbes and data from the World Bank.
The WEF meeting in the Alpine village of Davos, which begins on Monday, is expected to host around 3,000 participants, including business people, academics, government officials and civic group leaders.
Trump, who has visited Davos twice during his first term and is also scheduled to be sworn in on Monday, is expected to participate in the forum’s event via video on Thursday. He advocated for a long time accumulation of wealth – including his own – and counts multi-billionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser.
“What you see right now is a billionaire president being sworn in today, with the support of the richest man. So this is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the global oligarchies,” Oxfam’s Behar said, referring to Trump and Musk.
“It is not about one specific individual. It is an economic system that we have created in which billionaires can now mostly shape economic policies, social policies, which in the end gives them more and more profits,” he added.
The group called on governments to tax the richest to reduce inequality and extreme wealth, and to “dismantle the new aristocracy”. He also called for steps like breaking up monopolies, capping CEO pay and regulating corporations to ensure they pay workers “living wages.”
