Wealth of world’s 10 richest men doubled during pandemic, Oxfam charity says

The 10 wealthiest men in the world doubled their fortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic as poverty and inequality soared, an Oxfam study revealed yesterday.

The charity, which is focused on fighting global poverty, said the 10 wealthiest men’s fortunes shot up collectively from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion (€1.314 trillion), at a rate of around $1.3 billion per day.

Oxfam also stated that the world’s poorest are facing even more dire circumstances. “Over 160 million people are projected to have been pushed into poverty,” according to the paper “Inequality Kills,” published ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos meeting, which this year is being held online due to the ongoing pandemic.

Oxfam’s paper stated that increasing economic, gender and racial inequalities, as well as the disparity that exists between countries “are tearing our world apart.”

“This is not by chance, but choice: ‘economic violence’ is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful people. This causes direct harm to us all, and to the poorest people, women and girls, and racialized groups most,” the paper’s authors continued.

“It has never been so important to start righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing back elites’ power and extreme wealth including through taxation -getting that money back into the real economy and to save lives, “Oxfam International’s executive director Gabriela Bucher said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed openly both the motive of greed, and the opportunity by political and economic means, by which extreme inequality has become an instrument of economic violence,” Bucher added.

According to Forbes figures cited by the charity, the world’s 10 richest men are: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and family, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer and Warren Buffet.