The 10 richest people in the world added enough money to their fortunes last year to buy COVID-19 vaccines for every person on Earth, a new report said.
The British anti-poverty organization Oxfam included the stunning finding in a comprehensive report to illustrate how the pandemic has widened the gap between rich and poor.
“Polluted economies are directing wealth to a wealthy elite who are driving the pandemic into luxury, while those on the front lines of the pandemic – shop workers, health workers and market vendors – are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table,” said Gabriela Bucher. , executive director of Oxfam International in a statement.
According to Oxfam’s analysis of Forbes wealth data, the 10 richest billionaires saw their collective wealth from March 18 – around the time the coronavirus caused a historic crash in global stock markets – to December 31 at $ 540 billion.
That’s more than enough to cover the estimated $ 141.2 billion cost of manufacturing, distributing and delivering COVID-19 vaccines to the entire world’s population, the nonprofit said in its report Monday.
The billionaires could also use their added wealth to prevent someone from falling into poverty as a result of the pandemic – which, according to Oxfam, would cost about $ 88 billion for a year – and still make a profit, the report said.
Billionaires like Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, Tesla boss Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw their fortunes explode last year as the stock market experienced a record boom from the pandemic-induced crash.
Their profits were in stark contrast to the massive job losses and economic contraction that resulted from the virus and efforts to contain it. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development expects the global economy to shrink by 4.2 percent last year due 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 released the recommendations on the first day of the World Economic Forum’s annual Davos conference, which will be held almost this year.
“Extreme inequality is not inevitable, but a policy choice,” said Bucher.