Oxfam: The super-rich have doubled their fortunes during the pandemic

The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer.

The charity Oxfam traditionally backs up this well-known fact with data on global inequality before the World Economic Forum in Davos. During the pandemic, incomes for the world’s poor continued to fall, contributing to the deaths of 21,000 people a day, according to Oxfam. Meanwhile, the world’s 10 richest men have more than doubled their wealth since March 2020.

Oxfam calls for higher taxation

“Taxing this wealth would provide funds to address some of the root causes many people are not coping with the pandemic and that is access to health and essential services.” so Oxfam.

The World Economic Forum is chosen by the aid organization because thousands of business and political leaders, celebrities, activists, economists and journalists meet there. There are also the richest men in the world, i.e. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg or investors like Warren Buffet. The combined wealth of these top 10 has doubled from $700 billion to $1.5 billion, but there is inequality among the super-rich too: Elon Musk’s fortune has grown by more than 1,000%, while Bill Gates’s has grown by a more modest 30% %.