The expression: “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” could make perfect sense this year, since According to the organization Oxfam Intermón, the richest 1% has monopolized almost two thirds of the new wealth (valued at 42 trillion dollars), generated globally between December 2019 and December 2021, almost double that of the remaining 99%. of humanity. Over the past decade, they add, the richest 1% have captured around 50% of the new wealth.
This report reveals that, while the richest 1% have captured around 54% of global new wealth over the past decade, this percentage has risen to 63% in the past two years. Between December 2019 and December 2021, the new wealth generated amounted to 42 trillion dollars. The richest 1% hoarded $26 trillion (or 63% of this new wealth), while only $16 trillion (37%) went to the remaining 99% of the world’s population. According to Credit Suisse, people with wealth over a million dollars are in the richest 1%.
For every dollar of new global wealth that a person in the bottom 90% of humanity receives, a billionaire pockets $1.7 million.. Billionaires’ fortunes are growing at a rate of $2.7 billion a day. This adds to a decade of record gains in which the number of billionaires and their wealth has doubled.
The current price crisis is also a crisis of inequality. According to the World Bank, we could be facing the largest increase in poverty and inequality between countries since World War II. Entire countries are on the verge of bankruptcy. The poorest allocate four times more resources to servicing the debt (in the hands of rich creditors) than to public health servicesBrazil allocated three times more to debt service in 2021 than to investment in health.
While the most vulnerable homes suffer to fill the pantry or maintain an adequate temperature, The extraordinary growth of corporate profits in sectors such as energy and food has once again triggered the wealth of the richest.
According to the organization’s estimates, 95 large energy and food companies have more than doubled their profits by 2022., generating extraordinary profits for a total of 306 billion, and allocating 257 billion (84%) to remunerate its wealthy shareholders. This greed fuels inflation. In Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, these huge corporate profits have contributed at least 50% of inflation growth.
The Walton family dynasty, owner of 50% of the multinational Walmart, received 8.5 billion dollars in dividends over the past year. In 2022 alone, the wealth of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of large energy companies, has increased by $42 billion (46%).
By contrast, at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where the growth of inflation is above that of wagesand more than 820 million people worldwide (approximately one in ten) go hungry. Women and girls tend to eat last and least in householdsand represent almost 60% of the world population suffers from hunger.
The law of the richest is published on the day the World Economic Forum begins in Davos. “The elites are coming together in a context in which extreme wealth and poverty in the world have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years,” says Franc Cortada, director of Oxfam Intermón.
Oxfam’s calculations are based on the most up-to-date and comprehensive sources of information available. LThe figures on the richest people in the world have been taken from the Forbes Billionaires list..
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