Oxfam: world’s first-ever trillionaire to be born by 2034 while poverty won’t be eradicated for next 230 years
Since 2020, the wealth of the world’s five richest people has more than doubled – from $405bn to $869bn – while nearly 5 billion people have become poorer, according to the data presented in a report by the international charity and humanitarian organisation Oxfam, TASS reports
According to a new Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power, if current trends continue, the world could have its first-ever trillionaire in just a decade. However, poverty won’t be eradicated for another 230 years.
Seven out of ten of the world’s biggest corporations have a billionaire as CEO or principal shareholder, reveals a new Oxfam report. The total value of these companies’ assets stands at $10.2 trillion – equivalent to the combined GDPs of all countries in Africa and Latin America.
The number of billionaires mentioned in the study included American entrepreneur, founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk, CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Bernard Arnault, founder of the Amazon e-commerce corporation Jeff Bezos, founder of the Oracle software developer Larry Ellison and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
The top 1 percent own 43 percent of all global financial assets. They hold 48 percent of financial wealth in the Middle East, 50 percent in Asia and 47 percent in Europe. The 148 top corporations made $1.8 trillion in profits, according to researchers, and dished out huge payouts to rich shareholders while hundreds of millions faced cuts in real-term pay. The authors of the report stressed that billionaires have become $3.3 trillion richer since 2020, and their wealth has grown three times faster than the rate of inflation.
“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,” said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar. “This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else.”
