World's 5 richest men more than doubled their wealth since 2020: Oxfam report

About 60 per cent of the global population has grown poorer since 2020, while the five richest men have more than doubled their wealth in the same period.

This is what the latest Oxfam report, released ahead of the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, says about the widening global wealth gap.

The report, ‘Inequality Inc’, says it will take at least 230 years to end global poverty. However, the world may see its first trillionaire in the next ten years, it adds.

“The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 — at a rate of $14 million per hour,” reads the report.

Two contrasting statistics stand out in the report.

The five biggest billionaires will take 476 years to exhaust their wealth, if they spend a million US dollars every day.

But a female healthcare and social sector worker will take 1,200 years to match the salary of a Fortune 500 company’s Chief Executive Officer.

Corporate-driven inequality

Global corporations are only adding fuel to the already widening wealth gap, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020.

Currently, the world’s five largest corporations combined – Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Alphabet and Amazon – are valued at more than the Gross Domestic Products of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 148 biggest corporations earned over $1.8 trillion in profits in the 12 months leading up to June 2023.

That was a 52 per cent jump in profits compared to average profits between 2018 and 2021.

“New data shows that 2023 is set to shatter all records as the most profitable yet,” the report further notes.

Moreover, share ownership overwhelmingly benefits the richest. The top one per cent own 43 per cent of all global financial assets.

While corporate profits rose dramatically, 791 million workers failed to keep up with rising inflation.

They lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years, which is equal to 25 days of lost wages for each worker.

“We’re witnessing the beginnings of a decade of division, with billions of people shouldering the economic shockwaves of pandemic, inflation and war, while billionaires’ fortunes boom," arguesOxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

Behar arguesthat this inequality is no accident, adding that runaway corporate and monopoly power is an “inequality-generating machine.”

Oxfam’s solution?

The report bats for a more effective government to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

A more effective government, the Oxfam report argues, could protect workers, break monopolies & ensure accountability.

The report estimates that a wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could generate $1.8 trillion a year.

“No corporation or individual should have this much power over our economies and our lives,” says Behar.