Billionaires from around the world, especially the 10 richest individuals, have seen a massive rise in their wealth during the pandemic despite many poor people worldwide suffering from the illness while others have died, a study shows.
The report claims that the coronavirus pandemic resulted in lower incomes for the poorest people worldwide, which in turn, contributed to the death of 21,000 people every day. However, in sharp contrast, the 10 richest men have more than doubled their collective wealth since March 2020.
The Rich and The Poor
Oxfam, a charity organization, typically releases a report on global inequality at the start of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. The event is commonly attended by thousands of corporate and political leaders, celebrities, campaigners, economists, and journalists. They gather in the Swiss ski resort to hold panel discussions, drinks parties, and other activities.
But for the second year in history, the event will be held online and is scheduled to be held this week due to the threat of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The sudden surge of new cases has alarmed organizers and derailed their plans to return the event to a physical one, BBC reported.
Oxfam's report, named "Inequality Kills," wrote that the world was entering 2022 with an "unprecedented concern." It argued that the current global state of extreme inequality between the rich and the poor was a form of "economic violence" against the poorest individuals and nations.
The report said that structural and systemic policy and political choices were skewed to favor those who were wealthy and powerful in society. It claimed that this situation ultimately resulted in harm to the majority of ordinary people worldwide, highlighting the divide surrounding the coronavirus vaccines as a prime example.
"Millions of people would still be alive today if they had had a vaccine - but they are dead, denied a chance while big pharmaceutical corporations continue to hold monopoly control of these technologies," said Oxfam, Aljazeera reported.
The report also calculated that 252 men had more wealth than all one billion women and girls in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean combined. Furthermore, the 10 richest men in the world owned more than the least affluent 3.1 billion people.
Amassing Wealth
Billionaires worldwide added $5 trillion to their wealth during the health crisis, a situation that has exacerbated the gap between the rich and the poor. Millions of people around the world have been pushed into poverty due to the pandemic and its effects.
Oxfam's report used compiled data by Forbes that showed billionaires' wealth began from $8.6 trillion in March 2020 and ended at $13.8 trillion in November 2021. The spike in wealth represents a larger increase than in the last 14 years combined. The 10 richest men in the world had a collective wealth surge of more than double its original value, rising by $1.3 billion in a single day.
Oxfam's executive director Gabriela Bucher said in a press release that billionaires worldwide had a terrific time throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Central banks pushed trillions of dollars into financial markets to save the economy, yet the majority of which ended up in the pockets of billionaires riding the stock market boom, CNN reported.
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