The world could see its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organisation Oxfam International has said.
The body delivered its annual assessment of global inequalities as political and business elites gather at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
Oxfam, which for years has been trying to highlight the growing disparities between the super-rich and the bulk of the global population during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, reckons the gap has been “supercharged” since the Covid pandemic.
The group said the fortunes of the five richest men – Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and his family of luxury company LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and investment guru Warren Buffett – have spiked by 114 per cent in real terms since 2020, when the world was reeling from the pandemic.
Looking at Ireland, Oxfam said the richest 1 per cent hold 35.4 per cent of the country's financial wealth, calling on the Government to introduce a progressive wealth tax on Irish millionaires and billionaires.
The group claims such a tax could generate up to €9.2 billion for the Exchequer annually.
Oxfam’s interim executive director said the report showed that the world is entering a “decade of division”.
The @wef's Annual Meeting 2024 takes place 15-19 January 2024 in Davos, Switzerland. Find out more here: https://t.co/U3Jsk69LpY #wef24 pic.twitter.com/58TDayxcfW
— World Economic Forum (@wef) December 18, 2023
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Amitabh Behar said in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, where the forum’s annual meeting takes place this week: “We have the top five billionaires, they have doubled their wealth. On the other hand, almost five billion people have become poorer.
“Very soon, Oxfam predicts that we will have a trillionaire within a decade,” he said, referring to a person who has a thousand billion dollars.
“Whereas to fight poverty, we need more than 200 years.”
If someone does reach that trillion-dollar milestone – and it could be someone not even on any list of richest people right now – he or she would have the same value as oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
John D Rockefeller, of Standard Oil fame, is widely considered to have become the world’s first billionaire in 1916.
Currently, Mr Musk is the richest man on the planet, with a personal fortune of just under $250 billion, according to Oxfam, which used figures from Forbes.
Corporations funnel endless wealth to their ultra-rich owners. They also funnel power, undermining democracy and our rights. No corporation or individual should have this much control over our economies and our lives. #InequalityInc #FightInequality https://t.co/Aw5BzxOowI pic.twitter.com/C9XQvNbQ3N
— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) January 15, 2024
By contrast, the organisation said nearly five billion people have been made poorer since the pandemic, with many of the world’s developing nations unable to provide the financial support that richer nations could during lockdowns.
In addition, Oxfam said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which sent energy and food costs soaring, has disproportionately hit the poorest nations.
Oxfam is raising awareness over inequalities as Brazil prepares to host this year’s G20 summit of leading industrial and developing nations.
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has put issues that concern the developing world at the heart of the G20 agenda.
Oxfam said measures that should be considered in an “inequality-busting” agenda include the permanent taxation of the wealthiest in every country, more effective taxation of big corporations and a renewed drive against tax avoidance.
To calculate the top five richest billionaires, Oxfam used figures from Forbes as of November 2023. Their total wealth then was $869 billion, up from $340 billion in March 2020, a nominal increase of 155 per cent.
For the bottom 60 per cent of the global population, Oxfam used figures from the UBS Global Wealth Report 2023 and from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2019. Both used the same methodology.
Irish asks
Following the findings of the report, Oxfam Ireland made six recommendations for the Irish Government to implement to tackle inequality.
Domestically, in addition to a permanent wealth tax, the group called on the Government to close tax loopholes, implement recommendations put forward last year by the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, and "refuse taxpayers' money to corporations who flout the law of the land or operate contrary to stated government policy".
Internationally, Oxfam urged Ireland to "be a voice for the Global South" by supporting work to establish targets for wealth inequality reduction, and the so-called 'Palma of 1' proposal, which would the bottom 40 per cent of the population of each country having approximately the same income as the richest 10 per cent.
