Lhe coronavirus has helped make people rich…even richer. The fortunes of the ten wealthiest men in the world have doubled since the start of the pandemic while the incomes of 99% of humanity have melted, according to a shock report by Oxfam, unveiled on Monday January 17. “The increase in economic, gender and racial inequalities and inequalities between countries are destroying our world”, denounces the NGO fighting against poverty, in a report entitled “Inequality kills” and published on the edge of the Forum of Davos.
The cumulative fortune of all billionaires has experienced since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic “its largest increase ever recorded”, from 5,000 billion dollars, to reach its highest level, “to 13,800 billion. . The ten richest people in the world include, according to the magazine Forbes, Elon Musk, Tesla boss, Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta-Facebook), Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Larry Ellison (Oracle).
The NGO adds that “we can overcome extreme poverty through progressive taxation” and public health systems that are free for all. Oxfam also recommends not to hinder the creation of unions and to remove intellectual property from vaccine patents.
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“The billionaires had a tremendous pandemic”
According to Oxfam, inequality contributes to the deaths of “at least 21,000 people a day” based on global deaths from lack of access to health care, gender-based violence, hunger and the climate crisis. “A windfall tax of 99% on the pandemic income of the ten richest men would produce enough vaccines for the world, provide universal social and medical protection, fund climate adaptation and reduce climate-related violence. gender in 80 countries”, gives the example of the NGO.
She specifies that this would still leave “8 billion more than before the pandemic for these men”. “Billionaires had a tremendous pandemic. Central banks injected trillions of dollars into the financial markets to save the economy, many of which ended up in the pockets of billionaires. »
The World Economic Forum warned for its part that the wide inequalities in access to vaccines against Covid-19 risked weakening the fight for major international causes, such as climate change. The face-to-face Davos Forum has been postponed to the summer due to the Omicron variant, but an online edition opens Monday and runs through January 21.
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