Wealth inequality and 'billionaire supremacy' have gotten so bad that at this rate, it will take 230 years to end poverty
Oxfam International said top billionaires have become $3.3 trillion richer since 2020. Meanwhile, 60% of the global population has grown poorer.
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- Oxfam International published its inequality report, finding it could take 230 years to end poverty.
- Meanwhile, it will be just a few years before the world has its first trillionaire.
- The report called on nations to invest more in public services such as education and healthcare.
It will take multiple centuries to end poverty at the rate we're going, according to a recently published report.
Oxfam International published its inequality report this month, detailing a slew of grim predictions about the ever-widening wealth gap.
"At current rates, it will take 230 years to end poverty, but we could have our first trillionaire in 10 years," the Oxfam report said, laying the blame on billionaires and monopoly-like corporations that are "exacerbating inequality" across the global economy.
The Oxfam report detailed how some of the world's top billionaires multiplied their wealth since 2020 becoming $3.3 trillion richer collectively as billions of other people just got poorer, suffering from skyrocketing inflation and stagnant wages. Some 60% of the global population has gotten poorer since 2020, the report added.
"To end extreme inequality, governments must radically redistribute the power of billionaires and corporations back to ordinary people," the report's authors concluded. (The five lead authors listed are Rebecca Riddell, Nabil Ahmed, Alex Maitland, Max Lawson, and Anjela Taneja.)
The report called on governments to step up to the plate and invest more in public services, such as education, housing, transportation, and healthcare, just to name a few.
The authors also called on governments to heighten their oversight of corporations, increase transparency, and "radically increase taxes on corporates and rich individuals."
Other speakers on the topic, such as economist Oded Galor, have suggested reflection on the past is critical to changing the future, BI previously reported. Galor argued global inequality has surged in the last 200 years, and to combat it, key nations like the US need to ensure they have infrastructures that support diversity and don't regress politically, which Galor argued damages global prosperity.
The participation of global governments in the initiative to decrease wealth inequality will determine whether the world lapses into a future of "billionaire supremacy" or public power, the Oxfam report concluded.