A Decade to Trillionaire Status: How Wealth Hoarding Aggravates Woes

In its yearly assessment of global inequality, Oxfam International stated on Monday that the world may see its first trillionaire within ten years, coinciding with the meeting of corporate and political elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Oxfam, which for years has been seeking to highlight the widening discrepancies between the super-rich and the mass of the global population during the World Economic Forum's annual conference, says the gap has been "supercharged" since the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the group, since 2020, when the world was still reeling from the pandemic, the fortunes of the five richest men, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla; Bernard Arnault and his family of LVMH; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon; Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle; and investment guru Warren Buffett, have increased by 114% in real terms.

Amitabh Behar brought up the alarming inequality in wealth distribution at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He underlined that although the richest five billionaires have doubled, the economic conditions of over 5 billion others are deteriorating.

Behar also mentioned Oxfam's prediction that in the next ten years, there may be a trillionaire-someone with a quadruple-digit fortune. With Oxfam predicting that it would take more than 200 years to fully eliminate poverty, this dramatic discrepancy is especially remarkable. The statements emphasize how urgent it is to address and correct global economic disparities.

Someone would be worth the same as oil-rich Saudi Arabia if they were to hit the trillion-dollar mark, and that someone might not even be on any list of the world's richest persons at the moment.

Most people agree that the first billionaire in history was John D. Rockefeller, the well-known founder of Standard Oil, in 1916.

Musk Tops Global Rich List

With a personal wealth of little less than $250 billion, Musk is currently the richest person in the globe, according to Oxfam, which used data from Forbes.

On the other hand, the group claimed that since the epidemic, about 5 billion people have become poorer, and many of the world's poorest countries are unable to offer the financial help that wealthier nations offered during lockdowns.

Additionally, Oxfam said that the poorest countries were disproportionately affected by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which skyrocketed the price of food and energy.

According to Max Lawson, head of Oxfam's inequality strategy, it was a "good time for Oxfam to raise awareness" about inequality because Brazil is holding the Group of 20 summit this year, which brings together the top industrial and developing countries.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has put problems that concern the developing countries at the core of the G20 agenda.

According to Oxfam, an "inequality-busting" strategy should take into account measures like taxing the richest people permanently in every nation, more effectively taxing large firms, and redoubling efforts to combat tax evasion.

Oxfam utilized 2017 Forbes data to determine the top five richest billionaires as of November 2023. By March 2020, their total wealth had increased to $869 billion from $340 billion, a nominal gain of 155%.

Oxfam utilized data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2019 and the UBS Global Wealth Report 2023 to represent the poorest 60% of the world's population. They both employed the same process.