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International poverty charity Oxfam has called for \u201ca systemic and wide-ranging increase in taxation of the super-rich,\u201d echoing recent calls from billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. <\/p>\n
Research published by Oxfam on Monday found that billionaires\u2019 fortunes were increasing by an average of $2.7 billion every day. Meanwhile, 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wage growth, the charity said.<\/p>\n
Oxfam said imposing a tax of up to 5% on multimillionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion annually\u2014enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.<\/p>\n
The publication of Oxfam\u2019s Survival of the Richest<\/em> report<\/a> coincides with the beginning of the World Economic Forum\u2019s annual event in Davos, Switzerland, which will see wealthy and powerful individuals from around the globe gather at an exclusive ski resort.<\/p>\n According to its findings, the world\u2019s wealthiest 1% of people have captured two-thirds of all new worth created since 2020\u2014amounting to $42 trillion. That\u2019s twice as much as the wealth captured by the bottom 99% of the global population over the same period.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, Oxfam said, the richest 1% have captured around half of all new wealth.<\/p>\n America is still in the lead when it comes to housing billionaires, with 735 people living in the U.S. having billionaire status, according to Forbes<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Since 2020, a billionaire would have gained around $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the poorest 90% of the world\u2019s population, the charity added, describing those with billionaire status as experiencing \u201cextraordinary increases in their wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis comes on top of a decade of historic gains\u2014the number and wealth of billionaires having doubled over the last ten years,\u201d Oxfam said in a news release on Monday.<\/p>\n The organization went on to name and shame companies and individuals who it said had helped drive spiraling inflation with \u201cexcess corporate profits\u201d that boosted their net worth. They included companies in the food and energy sectors\u2014specifically Indian energy mogul Gautam Adani and the Walton family, who own Walmart<\/a>. Adani, Oxfam noted, saw his wealth soar by $42 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n Last year<\/a>, college dropout Adani became the first Asian person to break into the top three of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. As of Jan. 16, he was the fourth richest person in the world, according to the ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three members of the Walton dynasty account for the 17th<\/sup>, 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> places in Bloomberg\u2019s list of the world\u2019s richest people.<\/p>\n Spokespeople for Adani and the Waltons were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Oxfam on Monday urged policymakers to implement \u201ca systemic and wide-ranging increase in taxation of the super-rich to claw back crisis gains driven by public money and profiteering.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDecades of tax cuts for the richest and corporations have fueled inequality, with the poorest people in many countries paying higher tax rates than billionaires,\u201d the organization argued.<\/p>\n According to its report, taxation on the wealthiest used to be much higher, but currently only four cents in every tax dollar comes from taxes on wealth. Half of the world\u2019s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants, the report said, slamming wealthy individuals\u2019 income as \u201cmostly unearned, derived from returns on their assets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYet it is taxed on average at 18 percent, just over half as much as the average top tax rate on wages and salaries,\u201d Oxfam said. \u201cOver the last forty years, governments across Africa<\/a>, Asia, Europe, and the Americas have slashed the income tax rates on the richest. At the same time, they have upped taxes on goods and services, which fall disproportionately on the poorest people and exacerbate gender inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n The charity called on governments to introduce one-off wealth taxes and windfall taxes to \u201cend crisis profiteering,\u201d permanently increase taxes on the richest 1% to at least 60% of their income from labor and capital, and tax the wealth of the richest 1% \u201cat rates high enough to significantly reduce the numbers and wealth of the richest people, and redistribute these resources.\u201d<\/p>\n The latter proposal included raising funds through inheritance, property and land taxes, as well as net wealth taxes.<\/p>\n \u201cTaxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today\u2019s overlapping crises,\u201d Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, said in the organization\u2019s press release on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow \u2018trickling down\u2019 to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn\u2019t lift all ships\u2014just the superyachts.\u201d<\/p>\n Oxfam\u2019s call for governments to redistribute wealth echoes suggestions made by Bill Gates, who said he supported the idea<\/a> of rich people paying more in taxes during a Reddit Q&A last week.<\/p>\n \u201cI am surprised taxes have not been increased more,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, capital gains rates could be the same as ordinary income rates. I know things are tough for a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that it was common for those at the top to lose sight of what life is like for the majority of people, arguing that \u201cbeing rich can easily make you out of touch.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Gates announced that he planned to give \u201cvirtually all<\/a>\u201d of his wealth to his foundation, which is working to address various societal issues like climate change and making healthcare accessible.<\/p>\n The Microsoft<\/a> cofounder isn\u2019t the only high-profile billionaire to call for more taxes to be levied on society\u2019s wealthiest.<\/p>\n Disney<\/a> heiress Abigail Disney<\/a>, Salesforce<\/a> cofounder Marc Benioff<\/a> and legendary investor Ray Dalio<\/a> are among of a growing number of ultrawealthy people who have publicly expressed support for tax hikes on the rich.<\/p>\n However, there are some high-net-worth players who aren\u2019t on board with handing more of their cash over to the tax man.<\/p>\n Elon Musk has been a vocal opponent to levying more tax responsibilities on the world\u2019s wealthiest. In 2021, he slammed proposals<\/a> for a so-called billionaire tax, saying having to pay more taxes would disrupt his plans to \u201cget humanity to Mars.\u201d Musk, the world\u2019s second-richest person, has a net worth of $132 billion, according to Bloomberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n Back in 2019, Home depot co-founder Bernard Marcus and supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis, argued in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> that \u201cevery additional dollar the government takes from us is a dollar less for this critical process of expanding America\u2019s wealth and job-creating businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecent big gains<\/h2>\n
Support from Bill Gates<\/h2>\n