The combined fortunes of the world’s five richest men have more than doubled to $869 billion since 2020, while five billion people have been made poorer, a report from Oxfam has claimed.
The anti-poverty charity estimated that 148 top corporations made $1.8 trillion in profits, 52 percent up on 3-year average, allowing hefty pay-outs to shareholders even as millions of workers faced a cost of living crisis as inflation led to wage cuts in real terms.
The inflation-adjusted surge in wealth of the top five billionaires was driven by strong gains in the assets of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and investor Warren Buffett.
It said that with current trends, the world could expect to see the first ever trillionaire within a decade, but would not see the end of poverty for more than two centuries.
Meanwhile nearly 800 million workers saw their wages over the past two years fail to keep up with inflation, resulting on average in the equivalent of 25 days of lost annual income per worker, according to Oxfam’s analysis.
The inflation-adjusted surge in wealth of the top five billionaires was driven by strong gains in their assets
Of the world’s 1,600 largest corporations, just 0.4% of them have publicly committed to paying workers a living wage and to supporting a living wage in their value chains, the study found.
Oxfam called on Monday for governments to rein in corporate power by breaking up monopolies, instituting taxes on excess profit and wealth, and promoting alternatives to shareholder control such as forms of employee ownership.
‘This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,’ said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
The Oxfam report, which comes as business elites gather this week for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, found that a billionaire is now either running, or is the main shareholder of, 7 out of 10 of the world’s biggest companies.
The Davos events were launched to champion ‘stakeholder capitalism’, which the WEF says defines a corporation as being not just about maximising profits but fulfilling ‘human and societal aspirations as part of the broader social system’.
Oxfam said its report, based on data sources ranging from the International Labour Organization and World Bank to the Forbes annual rich list, showed such aspirations were far from being fulfilled.
‘What we know for sure is that today’s extreme system of shareholder capitalism, which puts ever-increasing returns to rich shareholders above all other objectives, is driving inequality,’ said Max Lawson, its Head of Inequality Policy.
‘This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,’ said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar
Last month, a report from the Centre for Social Justice claimed that the UK is in danger of becoming a ‘two nation’ state not seen since the Victorian era after COVID-19 lockdowns had a ‘catastrophic effect’ on the country’s social fabric.
Some 13.4 million people in Britain lead lives marred by family fragility, stagnant wages, poor housing, chronic ill-health, and crime, the centre said.
The report, Two Nations: The State Of Poverty In The UK, argues that the most disadvantaged are no better off than 15 years ago, the time of the financial crash, and cites evidence that for many the jump from welfare into work is not worth it.
The CSJ study finds that, especially for the least well off, the pandemic saw the gap between the so-called ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ blown wide open.
The report says that during lockdown, calls to a domestic abuse helpline rose 700 per cent.
Oxfam said that with current trends, the world could expect to see the first ever trillionaire within a decade, but would not see the end of poverty for more than two centuries (File image)
Oxfam called on Monday for governments to rein in corporate power by breaking up monopolies, instituting taxes on excess profit and wealth, and promoting alternatives to shareholder control (File image)
Mental ill health issues in young people went from one in nine to one in six and nearly a quarter amongst the oldest children.
More kids were serially missing school, with severe absence jumping 134 per cent.
1.2 million more people went on working-age benefits, 86 per cent more people sought help for addictions, and prisoners were locked up for 22.5 hours per day.
‘There is a growing gap between those who can get by and those stuck at the bottom,’ the reports concluded on the findings.
Six in 10 of the general public say that their area has a good quality of life, but this drops to less than two in five of the most deprived.
Covid lockdowns had a ‘catastrophic effect’ on the country’s social fabric, according to an inquiry by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). Pictured: Central Glasgow during a nationwide lockdown in 2021
Twenty years ago, just one in nine children were assessed as having a clinically recognisable mental health problem – that figure is now one in five (stock image)
The CSJ study finds that, especially for the least well off, the pandemic saw the gap between the so-called ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ blown wide open (file image)
Twenty years ago, just one in nine children were assessed as having a clinically recognisable mental health problem. That figure is now one in five, rising to nearly one in four for those aged 17-19.
If trends continue, the report argues that by 2030 over one in four five to 15-year-olds, which may be as many as 2.3 million children, could have a mental disorder.
There are likely to be 108 per cent more boys with mental health disorders by 2030 than there would have been if the lockdown had not happened, the CSJ adds.
After higher benefits, the most deprived cite improved mental and physical health as pivotal to a better life.
The report has found that 40 per cent of the most disadvantaged report having a mental health condition compared to just 13 per cent of the general population.