While the Covid pandemic has left many people in extreme poverty, some have seen it have the opposite effect.
Billionaires have experienced a huge wealth increase amid the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, according to a new report by Oxfam, over the past two years, someone has become a billionaire every 30 hours.
The charity released their report, Profiting from Pain, on Sunday which found that between March 2020 and March 2022, some 573 people became a new billionaire.
According to the group, the pandemic is “set to drive the biggest systemic increase in income inequality ever seen,” according to the group.
They added that for every new billionaire created during the pandemic, nearly one million people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022.
Oxfam suggests that billionaires’ wealth has risen more over the first 24 months since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, than in 23 years combined. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 percent of global GDP, which is a three-fold increase compared to the level it was at in 2000.
“Billionaires’ fortunes have not increased because they are now smarter or working harder. Workers are working harder, for less pay and in worse conditions,” said Gabriela Bucher, the Executive Director of Oxfam International.
The new research also indicates that corporations in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors are making record profits, even as wages have hardly moved and workers are struggling with some of the highest prices seen in decades.
Meanwhile, the fortunes of food and energy billionaires has risen by $453 billion (£360 billion) in the last two years, which is equivalent to $1 billion (£795 million) every couple of days.
While rising inflation is a global problem, price hikes are particularly difficult for low-wage workers and people in poorer countries tend to bear the brunt as they spend more than twice as much of their income on food compared to those in rich countries.
As a solution to the problem of inequality, Oxfam suggested taxing the rich. The charity suggested “one-off solidarity taxes” on billionaires’ increased wealth during the pandemic.
They also called for a permanent wealth tax of 2 per cent on wealth above $5 million (£398 million) and 5 per cent for wealth above $1 billion (£795 million).
