Oxfam: Billionaires' wealth grew three times faster to US $2 trillion in 2024, report claims
Oxfam: Oxfam has said that the wealth of the ten richest people in the world has increased by about US $100 million per day on average. Even if they lose 99% of their wealth overnight, they will still remain billionaires. Know what else is in the report.
Wealth among billionaires worldwide is projected to increase by US $2 trillion in 2024, which will be US $15 trillion as against its tripling in the last year, a study said on Monday.
In its flagship inequality report, published on the first day of every annual meeting of the World Economic Forum by Oxfam International, it has made a comparison the of big leap in billionaires' wealth and of people who are living in poverty without considerable change since 1990.
Oxfam said billionaire wealth in Asia will increase by US$299 billion in 2024. It also predicted that there will be at least five trillionaires within a decade. 204 new billionaires were created in 2024 - an average of about four every week. According to the report, 41 new billionaires were created in Asia alone this year.
In its report titled 'Takers, Not Makers', Oxfam said the richest 1% of the Global North would earn US$30 million per hour from the Global South through financial systems in 2023. It further said that 60% of billionaires' wealth is now derived from inheritance, monopoly power, or crony relationships, indicating that "billionaires' enormous wealth is largely not legitimate."
Oxfam called on governments around the world to tax the richest to combat inequality, end excessive wealth, and end the new aristocracy. It also wanted the former colonial masters to pay reparations for past wrongs. The wealth of billionaires in 2024 increased by an average of $5.7 billion per day while their number grew to 2,769 from 2,565 in 2023.
According to Oxfam, during the pandemic, the wealth of the world's ten richest people has grown by $1 million a day, or about $100 million a day on average. It would take them having 99% of their wealth wiped out overnight for them to cease to be billionaires.
Oxfam, whose annual inequality report is among the most hotly debated items on the annual World Economic Forum, said the myth that billionaires' wealth is largely created through hard work and entrepreneurial skills is quite the opposite. Indeed, 60% of billionaires' wealth is a result of inheritance, monopoly power, or crony ties.
