Oxfam: Billionaires added $5 trillion to their fortunes during the pandemic
The report was released ahead of the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda, which will take place this week after the group’s annual in-person meeting was delayed due to Omicron. Oxfam argues that governments should tax gains made by the super-rich during the pandemic and use the money to fund health care systems, pay for vaccines, fight discrimination and address the climate crisis.
“Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic. Central banks pumped trillions of dollars into financial markets to save the economy, yet much of that has ended up lining the pockets of billionaires riding a stock market boom,” Gabriela Bucher, Oxfam’s executive director, said in a press release.
“Inequality at such pace and scale is happening by choice, not chance,” Bucher said. “Not only have our economic structures made all of us less safe against this pandemic, they are actively enabling those who are already extremely rich and powerful to exploit this crisis for their own profit.”
Vaccine inequality has become a major issue as many of the world’s richest countries hoard shots, buying up enough doses to vaccinate their populations several times over and failing to deliver on their promises to share them with the developing world.
Billionaires are being asked to use their wealth to help the less fortunate.
David Beasley, director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme, called on billionaires including Bezos and Musk to “step up now, on a one-time basis” to help solve world hunger in November.
The call-out got a direct response from Musk, who later said on Twitter that if the organization could lay out “exactly how” the funding would solve the issue, he would “sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
The CEO did not publicly respond when the UN released a plan.
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