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Every 30 hours during the Covid-19 pandemic, new millionaires emerge, with nearly a million
Global charities announced on Monday, the first day of the World Economic Forum Summit in Davos, Switzerland, that there were 573 millionaires in the world by March 2022 from the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Said in the summary that was done. Oxfam says this is equivalent to one new millionaire every 30 hours.
In addition, it is estimated that a pandemic exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, widening global inequality and rising food prices could drive 263 million people to extreme poverty in 2022. I am. According to Oxfam, this represents nearly one million people every 33 hours.
The organization noted that as of March, millionaires were worth a total of $ 12.7 trillion. In 2021, billionaire wealth accounted for almost 14% of the world’s gross domestic product.
Gabriella Butcher, executive director of Oxfam International, said billionaires have arrived at the Davos Summit to “celebrate the incredible surge in their property.”
“The pandemic and now the surge in food and energy prices was, in a nutshell, a big hit for them,” she said.
“In the meantime, decades of progress in extreme poverty have now been reversed, with millions of people simply facing an impossible rise in the cost of staying alive,” Butcher added.
Pandemic storm
Focusing on the surge in wealth in a particular business unit, Oxfam said food and energy billionaires’ wealth has increased by $ 453 billion over the past two years, equivalent to $ 1 billion every two days.
For example, food giant Cargill is reported to be one of four companies that dominate more than 70% of the world’s agricultural market. The Cargill-owned company generated nearly $ 5 billion in net income last year. This is the greatest profit in its history. Currently, the Cargill family alone has 12 billion billionaires, up from eight before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Oxfam said the pandemic has created 40 new millionaires in the pharmaceutical sector. Billionaires are those who have benefited from their monopoly on vaccines, treatments, tests and personal protective equipment.
Oxfam says the government will impose a one-time solidarity tax on billionaire pandemic storms to prevent even more severe wealth inequalities and help those with rising food and energy costs. Recommended.
End the “crisis profit”?
Charities have also proposed that the government end “crisis profits” by introducing a 90% temporary excess profit tax on storms caused by large corporations in all sectors.
Oxfam has also proposed permanent taxes to curb the extreme wealth, monopoly power, and higher carbon emissions produced by the ultra-rich.
An annual wealth tax starting at 2% for millionaires and 5% for millionaires could generate $ 2.52 trillion annually. This is sufficient to rescue 2.3 billion people from poverty, create adequate vaccines for the world’s population, and provide universal insurance and social protection to people living in low- and middle-income countries.
