Oxfam has released a report titled “Profiting from Pain” for the World Economic Forum 2022 for its annual meeting for a five-day event at Davos on May 23.
Key highlights of report
- The COVID-19 pandemic created a new billionaire every 30 hours, and it is expected that a million people could be pushed into extreme poverty at the same rate in 2022.
- 573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours.
- 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty this year, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.
- The wealth of billionaires in the world has also risen more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in 23 years combined.
- The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9% of the global GDP. This is a three-fold increase from 4.4% in 2000.
- “Billionaires’ fortunes have not increased because they are now smarter or working harder. Workers are working harder, for less pay and in worse conditions.
- The super-rich have rigged the system with impunity for decades and they are now reaping the benefits.
- The pandemic has created 40 new pharma billionaires. Pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 profit every second just from their monopoly control of the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Gender inequalities have also deepened as women were disproportionately pushed out of employment.
- In 2021, there were 13 million fewer women in employment compared with 2019, while men’s employment recovered to 2019 levels.
- The gender pay gap too is forecast to take 136 years to close up from 100 years before the pandemic.
- Oxfam recommends several tax measures to stop deepening income disparities, including a one-off solidarity taxes on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls and permanent wealth taxes.
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