According to a news report, ten of the world’s richest people, including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos experienced an increase in their wealth after the pandemic began.
These businessmen could even afford to pay for vaccinations across the entire world.
In order to examine the financial impact of the pandemic on the world’s richest, the anti-poverty campaigners used statistics from the Forbes 2020 Billionaire List and wealth data from Credit Suisse.
They found that the virus’ fallout would lead to the largest rise on record in global inequality unless governments drastically reconfigure their economies.
The 1,000 richest people have already regained their losses (which was only around 30%) in less than ten months that they went through on the early days of the pandemic due to the market bounce back, while the poor would take more than a decade to recover theirs, according to Oxfam.
The confederation claimed that the wealthy ten could pay for everyone on earth to receive the two doses of the vaccine at a cost of $141.2 billion.
Cumulatively, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg have gained around $252 billion altogether since the pandemic, making it more than enough to cover that cause.
Not just that, but with their wealth, they could keep everyone above the poverty line with only $80 billion – much less than what they’ve earned from their success.
“Rigged economies are funneling wealth to a rich elite who are riding out the pandemic in luxury, while those on the frontline of the pandemic – shop assistants, healthcare workers, and market vendors – are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table,” said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International.
“They must invest in public services and low carbon sectors to create millions of new jobs and ensure everyone has access to a decent education, health, and social care, and they must ensure the richest individuals and corporations contribute their fair share of tax to pay for it,” she said.
“These measures must not be band-aid solutions for desperate times but a `new normal´ in economies that work for the benefit of all people, not just the privileged few,” she added.
In the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Oxfam has historically tried to inspire dialogue at the annual meeting of business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum. While the pandemic means that this week there will be no trek to the mountains, organizers are putting on a virtual meeting.
Source: Daily Mail
