A new report says the ten richest people in the world added enough money to their fortunes last year to buy COVID-19 vaccines for everyone on the planet.
The British anti-poverty organization Oxfam included the startling finding in a comprehensive report to illustrate how the pandemic has widened the divide between rich and poor.
“Fixed economies are channeling wealth into a wealthy elite that is eliminating the pandemic in luxury, while those on the front line of the pandemic (shop assistants, health workers and market vendors) struggle to pay the bills and put food on the table, ”Oxfam International CEO Gabriela Bucher said in a statement.
The ten richest billionaires saw their collective wealth increase by $ 540 billion from March 18 (around the time the coronavirus caused a historic crash in global stock markets) through December 31 , according to Oxfam’s analysis of Forbes wealth data.
This is more than enough to cover the estimated cost of $ 141.2 billion in the production, distribution and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to the entire world population, the nonprofit organization said in its report. of Monday.
Billionaires could also use their extra wealth to prevent someone from falling into poverty as a result of the pandemic (which Oxfam says would cost about $ 88 billion a year) and still end up making a profit, according to the report.
Billions like Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, Tesla boss Elon Musk, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw their fortunes explode last year as the stock market saw a record rise in the fall caused by the pandemic.
Its gains provided a stark contrast to the massive job losses and economic contractions that resulted from the virus and efforts to control it. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development expects the world economy to shrink by 4.2% last year thanks to the pandemic.
Oxfam urged world leaders to address these inequalities by raising corporate taxes, closing tax havens and expanding social welfare programs.
The group published the recommendations on the first day of the annual Davos conference of the World Economic Forum, which is being held almost this year.
“Extreme inequality is not inevitable, but a political choice,” Bucher said.