A pedestrian carrying a face masks delivers meals to a homeless individual sleeping within the entrance of a store, closed as a consequence of COVID-19 coronavirus restrictions, in central London on December 23, 2020.
Tolga Akmen | AFP | Getty Images
The pandemic has made the wealthy richer whereas the earnings of the remainder of the world — about 99% of humanity — dropped, in line with a brand new Oxfam report titled “Inequality Kills.”
The wealth of the world’s 10 richest males doubled from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion throughout the pandemic, the worldwide charity stated on Monday.
“It has by no means been so vital to begin righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing again elites’ energy and excessive wealth together with by taxation — getting that cash again into the actual financial system and to save lots of lives,” stated Oxfam International’s Executive Director Gabriela Bucher.
A 99% windfall tax on the pandemic positive factors of the world’s 10 richest males would increase sufficient cash to pay for vaccines for the world — in addition to finance varied social measures for greater than 80 international locations, the report stated.
The wealth of billionaires rose extra since Covid began in comparison with the final 14 years, and a brand new billionaire was minted each 26 hours because the pandemic started, Oxfam stated.
The CEOs of Covid vaccine-developers Moderna and BioNTech made billions in 2020 on account of the pandemic.
At the identical time, the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are worse off after shedding earnings throughout Covid-19, and 160 million extra folks fell into poverty, the discharge stated.
Windfall tax
One method to “claw again” the large positive factors made by billionaires throughout the disaster is to tax the cash that billionaires have made because the begin of the pandemic, the report stated.
“A 99% one-off windfall tax on the Covid-19 wealth positive factors of the ten richest males alone would generate $812bn,” the report stated.
“These sources might pay to make sufficient vaccines for all the world and fill financing gaps in local weather measures, common well being and social safety, and efforts to handle gender-based violence in over 80 international locations,” it additionally stated.
If these ten males had been to lose 99.999 % of their wealth tomorrow, they’d nonetheless be richer than 99 % of all of the folks on this planet.
Gabriela Bucher
govt director, Oxfam International
Even after the tax, the world’s 10 richest males would nonetheless be billionaires and as a bunch, would have elevated their wealth by $8 billion from the beginning of the pandemic, the report stated.
“If these ten males had been to lose 99.999 % of their wealth tomorrow, they’d nonetheless be richer than 99 % of all of the folks on this planet,” stated Bucher.
Beyond a one-off windfall tax, governments should additionally implement or improve everlasting wealth and capital taxes to “basically and radically scale back wealth inequality,” the report stated.
The Oxfam report was launched forward of this week’s digital World Economic Forum conferences, the place world leaders are set to debate international challenges.