According to Statistics recently released by Oxfam, an international charity, a new billionaire will appear every 30 hours during the new crown pandemic. At the same time, nearly 1 million people may fall into extreme poverty at roughly the same rate. The Organization estimates that 263 million people may fall into extreme poverty in 2022, equivalent to nearly 1 million every 33 hours, due to the epidemic, increasing global inequality and rising food prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
The organization pointed out that as of March this year, the total assets of global billionaires were $12.7 trillion. In 2021, the wealth of billionaires is equivalent to nearly 14% of global GDP.
Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, said billionaires came to Davos to "celebrate the amazing growth of their wealth".
"The epidemic and the sharp rise in food and energy prices are, in short, a wealth for them," she said
"At the same time, the progress made in eradicating extreme poverty for decades is now regressing, and millions of people face incredible rising costs just to survive," Buh said
Oxfam pointed out that the growth of billionaires' wealth is particularly significant in some areas. In the past two years, the wealth of billionaires in the food and energy industry has increased by $453 billion, equivalent to an increase of $1 billion every two days.
For example, food giant Cargill made a net profit of nearly $5 billion last year, the largest profit in the company's history. The report said that at present, there are 12 billionaires in the Cargill family alone, compared with 8 before the epidemic.
At the same time, Oxfam said the epidemic had created 40 new billionaires in the pharmaceutical industry, who benefited from their company's monopoly on vaccines, treatment, testing and personal protective equipment.
To prevent greater wealth inequality and support people with rising food and energy prices, Oxfam recommended that governments impose a one-time solidarity tax on the windfall of billionaires.
The charity also suggested that the government end the "crisis profiteering" by imposing a temporary excess profit tax of 90% on the profits generated by large companies in all industries.
Oxfam also proposed a permanent tax to curb the extreme wealth, monopoly power and higher carbon emissions of the super rich.
The annual income tax on billionaires and billionaires is 2.52% and 2.5% respectively. This will be enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, produce enough vaccines for the global population, and provide universal health care and social protection for people living in low - and middle-income countries.