‘Survival of the Richest’: For a more equal world, cut down number of billionaires by half, suggests Oxfam 

A new Oxfam report titled “Survival of the Richest” has revealed that over the last 10 years, billionaires of the world have doubled their wealth. The wealthiest one per cent has gained 74 per cent over the bottom 50 per cent. On Monday, revealing the report’s findings, the aid group suggested that by 2030, the number of billionaires should be reduced by half. For this, it suggests the implementation of measures like higher taxes and other policies that make the world more equal.

The report comes as the global elite are set to meet for their annual gathering in Davos. Starting Monday, as per AFP, the Swiss Alpine Village will host political leaders, CEOs and celebrities for the week-long World Economic Forum meeting.

As per Oxfam, since 2020, even as inflation outpaced wages for at least 1.7 billion people worldwide, the wealth of billionaires has surged by $2.7 billion a day. By the end of 2021, the wealthiest had pocketed $26 trillion or 63 per cent of the total new wealth. The rest went to the remaining 99 per cent of the global population. 

To somewhat level the playing field, the group called for taxes that progressively redistribute wealth.

Citing a report by ProPublica, a US-based investigative news group, Oxfam said that with Elon Musk facing a “true tax rate” of just 3.2 per cent between 2014-18 and Jeff Bezos paying less than one per cent, it is clear that the wealthiest hardly pay any taxes.

In contrast, 99 per cent pay more taxes. Oxfam presents, as an example, a Ugandan market trader that works with the organisation, and remarks that he pays more than tenfold to the billionaires at 40 per cent.

It called for a permanent tax increase on the rich, with a minimum 60 per cent tax on their income from labour and capital.

Oxfam said, “the world should aim to halve the wealth and number of billionaires between now and 2030, both by increasing taxes on the top one per cent and by adopting other billionaire-busting policies”.

As per the group, this would help bring the number of billionaires down to 2012 levels, adding that the “eventual aim should be to go further, and to abolish billionaires altogether, as part of a fairer, more rational distribution of the world’s wealth.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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