First trillionaire in 10 years, but it’ll take centuries to end global poverty | India News

Wages Of 800 Million Workers Have Failed To Keep Up With Inflation While Wealth Of 5 Richest People Has Grown By $14 Million An Hour Since 2020, Says Oxfam
Elon Musk’s current wealth of about $230 billion could soon look like small change. That’s because the world could have its first trillionaire in a decade, says UK-based non-profit Oxfam. It notes at the same time that ending poverty – the target for which is 2030 under the UN Sustainable Development Goals – may not be possible for another 229 years.

Inflation-proof profits

Runaway inflation across the world has destabilised governments and pushed people to desperation, but if there’s one thing that’s grown faster than prices of bare necessities it is the wealth of the ultra rich. Oxfam says that the “supercharged surge” enjoyed by the wealthy in the last three years has meant that billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020, their wealth growing three times faster than the rate of inflation.

Meanwhile, global poverty remains mired at prepandemic levels. “Runaway corporate and monopoly power is an inequality-generating machine: through squeezing workers, dodging tax, privatising the state, and spurring climate breakdown, corporations are funneling endless wealth to their ultrarich owners. But they’re also funneling power, undermining our democracies and our rights,” Oxfam said.

Geography of monopoly
Although they account for only a fifth of global population, rich countries of the Global North own 69% of global wealth. Concentration of wealth is aided by monopolies created by the wealthiest people and the largest corporations.

From Google to Amazon and Bernard Arnault-owned luxury goods giant LVMH to Africa’s richest person Aliko Dangote, monopolies are everywhere.
“Monopolies harm innovation and crush workers and smaller businesses,” said Oxfam International interim executive director Amitabh Behar. “Governments must intervene to break up monopolies,” he says, pointing to actions like the US anti-monopoly suit against Amazon and the European Commission’s probe against Google’s online advertising business.
Wage hike loses to price rise
Meanwhile, quality of work and quantum of wages have declined for workers at the lower rungs. Oxfam says people worldwide are “working harder and longer hours… The wages of nearly 800 million workers have failed to keep up with inflation and they have lost $1.5 trillion over the last two years.” It would take 1,200 years for a woman in the health and social sector to earn what an average CEO of a top-100 Fortune company earns in a year.

Lax on tax
Oxfam says the effective corporate tax rate has fallen by “roughly a third in recent decades” even as privatisation is fast becoming the order of the day. A wealth tax on the world’s millionaires and billionaires could generate $1.8 trillion a year, it estimates.