The net worth of the world’s wealthiest five individuals has more than doubled since 2020, as highlighted by Oxfam, raising concerns about unchecked corporate influence during the annual gathering of business elites in Davos, Switzerland.
The combined wealth of these individuals, including Bernard Arnault of LVMH, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Elon Musk of Tesla, has reached $869 billion, growing at an astonishing rate of $14 million per hour over the past four years, as outlined in Oxfam’s report “Inequality Inc.,” released on Monday.
Contrastingly, despite this surge in wealth for the top five billionaires, Oxfam points out that 5 billion people have experienced a decline in their economic well-being over the same period.
The report reveals that billionaires collectively are now $3.3 trillion richer compared to 2020, and a noteworthy observation is that a billionaire occupies the leadership position in 7 out of the world’s 10 largest companies, according to the findings of the London-based charity.
If present patterns persist, the world is poised to witness its first trillionaire within the next decade, but the eradication of poverty remains a distant goal, extending for another 229 years, as indicated by a report from the anti-poverty organization.
Amitabh Behar, the Interim Executive Director of Oxfam International, emphasized that the accumulation of a billion dollars by any individual is flawed.
Behar stated that the world is entering a decade characterized by increasing divisions, where billions of people bear the economic repercussions of the pandemic, inflation, and conflict, while the fortunes of billionaires continue to soar. He underscored that this disparity is not a happenstance occurrence; rather, the billionaire class is orchestrating the redirection of more wealth to themselves at the expense of the broader population.
Highlighting the role of corporate and monopoly power, Behar described it as an engine generating inequality. Corporations, by exploiting labor, evading taxes, privatizing state assets, and contributing to climate deterioration, are channeling immense wealth to their ultra-wealthy proprietors. Beyond economic implications, this concentration of power is eroding democracies and undermining fundamental rights.
Oxfam traditionally issues its annual report on inequality just prior to the commencement of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), initiated by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab in the early 1970s to advocate for “stakeholder capitalism.”
The charitable organization asserts that corporations currently pay approximately one-third less in taxes compared to previous decades due to an ongoing lobbying effort characterized as a “war on taxation,” consequently depriving governments of financial resources that could otherwise be allocated to benefit the vulnerable segments of society.
Oxfam recommends that governments implement measures such as capping CEOs’ remuneration, dismantling private monopolies, and introducing a wealth tax, which could generate an estimated $1.8 trillion annually.
According to Oxfam, there exists compelling evidence and historical precedent supporting the assertion that public intervention can effectively curtail excessive corporate power and address inequalities. This involves shaping the market to foster fairness and liberating it from undue influence by billionaires.
