World economy: Oxfam: billionaires’ wealth is growing faster and faster

The wealth of the world’s super-rich is growing ever faster. This emerges from a report published by the development organization Oxfam before the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos. According to this, there are now 2,769 billionaires worldwide – 204 new ones were added last year alone. At the same time, the number of people living below the World Bank’s expanded poverty line is stagnating and the number of hungry people is increasing.

The Oxfam report is based on data from various sources. For example, Oxfam combined Forbes estimates of billionaires’ wealth with data from the World Bank and data from the UBS World Wealth Report.

Will there soon be the first trillionaire?

In its analysis, the emergency aid and development organization comes to the conclusion that the world could already have five dollar trillionaires within a decade. Last year, the wealth of billionaires grew three times faster than in the previous year. It increased from 13 to 15 trillion US dollars.

The wealth of a billionaire increased by an average of two million US dollars per day. The richest ten billionaires even became richer by an average of $100 million per day. Even if they lost 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires, Oxfam said.

“The wealth growth of the super-rich is limitless, while there is little progress in combating poverty and Germany, for example, is even cutting back on support for low-income countries,” criticized the executive chairman of Oxfam Germany, Serap Altinisik.

In Germany there are many billionaires thanks to inheritance

According to the report, Germany has the fourth most billionaires in the world. Their number rose last year by nine to 130. Their total assets are now $625.4 billion.

Oxfam also calculated that German billionaires benefit above average from inheritances. While 36 percent of billionaires’ wealth worldwide comes from inheritance, in this country the figure is as high as 71 percent.

“In Germany too, super-wealth is growing unstoppably,” warns Oxfam. At the same time, poverty has increased significantly in recent years and many people cannot maintain their usual standard of living. “This extreme inequality is largely caused by an unfair tax policy,” explained Oxfam speaker Manuel Schmitt. “In this country, super-rich people often pay less taxes and fees than middle-class families.”

The next federal government must therefore decide to tax large assets, demands Oxfam. The SPD and the Greens, among others, are proposing this in their programs for the federal election in February. “Many problems could be solved with very low tax rates on the assets of the ultra-rich,” said Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) to the Funke media group.

Warning about Elon Musk’s political power

Oxfam is also concerned that the economic power of billionaires is clearly reflected in political power. Inequality has consequences for democracy, warned Altinisik. “Because wealth goes hand in hand with political power. That’s what we’re seeing today at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump: a billionaire president supported by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.”