Crises may come and go, but billionaires' capital continues to prosper. The world's five richest people have doubled their wealth since 2020, Oxfam said on Monday, ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. The NGO thus calls on states to be less influenced by the ultra-rich in tax policy. In detail, the fortune of the five richest men in the world increased between 2020 and 2023 from $405 billion to $869 billion.
Billionaires' capital has also increased by $3.300 trillion, the NGO said in a report, citing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as one of the richest men on the planet. Buoyed by a surge in stock prices, the ultra-rich are seeing their financial weight grow year after year thanks to their participation in the capital of multinationals. Meanwhile, the wealth and combined income of five billion people on Earth has declined, Oxfam said.
"Big business is widening inequality"
"By putting pressure on workers with wages that are rising at a slower rate than inflation, by avoiding taxes, by privatizing the state and by contributing greatly to global warming, big business is widening inequality," the international organization wrote in its report titled "Multinationals and Multiple Inequalities."
The World Economic Forum meeting in Davos will bring together more than 800 business leaders and 60 heads of state and government for conferences and informal meetings throughout the week. It is precisely this mix of public and private interests that the NGO criticises: "Companies and their wealthy owners also maintain inequalities by waging a sustained and very effective tax war," it insists.
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"Around the world, members of the private sector have been calling for lower rates, more loopholes, less transparency and other measures to allow corporations to contribute as little as possible to the state coffers," she continued, citing the "hordes of lobbyists" and the "miraculous fallout" that resulted.
Since 1980, corporate tax has been more than halved in OECD member countries, falling to 23.1% in 2022, the NGO said. In its report, Oxfam outlines a number of measures to tackle the widening gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of society. In addition to dismantling private monopolies and capping CEO pay, the introduction of a wealth tax on multimillionaires and billionaires could bring in up to $1.800 trillion a year, according to the NGO.