(Observer News)
According to the British Guardian on January 17, although the new crown epidemic has dealt a major blow to the global economy, causing tens of millions of people to fall into poverty, the wealth of the world's richest billionaires has still increased significantly during the epidemic.
Image source The Guardian
The Guardian article cites a report published by Oxfam based on data from the Forbes Billionaires List and Credit Suisse's annual Global Wealth Report. According to the report, from March 2020 to October 2021, 99% of the world's incomes are decreasing, in contrast to the fact that the wealth of the world's richest 10 richest people has doubled during the epidemic, reaching six times the total wealth of the world's poorest 3.1 billion people, and global wealth inequality has further widened.
According to data from Forbes Magazine's list of billionaires, Musk's assets grew 10-fold to $294 billion in the 20 months since the outbreak, making him the world's richest man in one fell swoop, surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Separately, Bezos's net wealth rose 67 percent to $203 billion, Facebook founder Zuckerberg's wealth increased by $118 billion, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates' wealth increased by 31 percent to $137 billion.
While the assets of those with lower incomes have also appreciated during the pandemic, the top 10 of the world's richest men have six times more wealth than the 40 percent of the bottom (3.1 billion) combined, the report notes. The charity added that the 10 billionaires would need 414 years to spend their combined wealth if they spent $1 million a day. Moreover, there are also significant differences in wealth rise between the rich and the rich, for example, Elon Musk's wealth has increased by more than 1,000%, while Gates's wealth has increased by only 30%.
The report explains that the rich are richer because central banks have injected trillions of dollars into financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic to stimulate the economy, but much of that economic support ends up in the pockets of billionaires who have been boosted by the stock market boom.
In stark contrast to the growing wealth of the rich, the number of poor people in the world is increasing and their lives are deteriorating.
Oxfam said the coronavirus epidemic has made the world's richest people richer, but it has also led to more people living in poverty.
Danny Slikandaragj, chief executive of Oxfam, said that during the pandemic, a new billionaire was born almost every day, while 99% of the world's population was worse off due to lockdowns, reduced international trade and reduced international tourism, and as a result, another 160 million people were forced into poverty.
The report also said that one person in the world dies every four seconds due to lack of medical care, hunger and other issues. Compared to the years before the pandemic, the number of people living on less than $5.50 (about 33 yuan) a day increased by 160 million after the pandemic. (The World Bank uses $5.50 a day as a measure of poverty in high- and middle-income countries.) ）
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has also increased global vaccination inequalities, with some poor people unable to get vaccinated, and Oxfam said that imposing a windfall tax on the wealth gains of the 10 richest people in the pandemic could pay for the world's vaccinations and provide resources to combat climate change, provide universal health care and social protection, and address gender issues. The charity also said that even if this tax were imposed, the 10 billionaires would earn $8 billion more than they did before the pandemic.
It is worth mentioning that earlier this month, World Bank President David Malpass expressed his concern about the widening of global inequality, arguing that inflation could do more damage to poorer countries and that "the outlook for developing countries will remain further and further behind," he said, adding that "developing countries face long-term distress from serious problems such as lower vaccination rates, global macro policies and debt burdens." ”
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