A New Billionaire Was Created Every 30 Hours During The Pandemic: Oxfam

Billionaire wealth has increased to staggering levels amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a new billionaire being created every 30 hours over the past two years, per a new report from Oxfam.

On Sunday, anti-poverty organization Oxfam released a report that found that from March 2020 to March 2022, some 573 people became new billionaires.  

Meanwhile, this year alone Oxfam expects more than 260 million people to be pushed into extreme poverty — or living on less than $1.90 per day — worldwide, a rate of 1 million people falling into extreme poverty every 33 hours.  

The COVID-19 pandemic is “set to drive the biggest systemic increase in income inequality ever seen,” according to the group. 

Currently, the world’s 10 richest men own more wealth than the bottom 40% of humanity, or 3.1 billion people. 

In the U.S, the COVID-19-related economic crisis left tens of millions of people jobless and struggling financially. One million people have died  in the last two years from coronavirus in the U.S. alone, a staggering loss. Black and Latinx people were about twice as likely to die from the virus than white people.

“It’s no accident that we are seeing staggering levels of inequality in the U.S. and globally. It’s by deliberate design,” Abby Maxman, Oxfam America’s president, said in a release. 

“For decades, the ultra-wealthy and corporations have used their economic might to pressure those in power to write the rules so they can avoid taxes, pay poverty wages and skirt responsibility,” Maxman added. “Meanwhile, working families are feeling the sharp edge of economic insecurity and loss of hope in the future.” 

During the pandemic, the over 2,000 billionaires in the world increased their collective worth by $3.78 trillion, or 42%, in two years. 

Currently, the world’s billionaires hold wealth equivalent to 13.9% of global Gross Domestic Product — up from 4.4% of world GDP in 2000. 

Meanwhile, half of women of color in the U.S. earn less than $15 an hour at their jobs. And a steady rise in food and gas prices is hitting poor families hardest. 

The report had one principal recommendation: tax the rich. Oxfam suggested “one-off solidarity taxes” on billionaires’ increased wealth during the pandemic, as well as a permanent, progressive wealth tax of 2% on wealth above $5 million and 5% for wealth above $1 billion.