The world’s first trillionaire might emerge within a decade, according to Oxfam International’s annual assessment of global inequities, which coincided with the meeting of political and economic elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Oxfam, which has been highlighting the widening discrepancies between the super-rich and the rest of the world’s population at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference for years, believes the gap has been “supercharged” by the coronavirus outbreak.
According to the group, the fortunes of the five richest men — Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and his family of luxury company LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and investment guru Warren Buffett — have increased by 114% in real terms since 2020, when the world was reeling from the pandemic. Oxfam’s interim executive director stated that the report demonstrated that the world is entering a “decade of division.”
“We have the top five billionaires, they have doubled their wealth. On the other hand, almost 5 billion people have become poorer,” Amitabh Behar said in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, where the forum’s annual meeting takes place this week. “Very soon, Oxfam predicts that we will have a trillionaire within a decade,” Behar said, referring to a person who has a thousand billion dollars. “Whereas to fight poverty, we need more than 200 years.”
Oxfam used Forbes numbers from November 2023 to compile the list of the top five richest billionaires
If someone reaches the trillion-dollar mark — and it may be someone who isn’t even on any list of the world’s wealthiest individuals right now — he or she will be worth as much as oil-rich Saudi Arabia. John D. Rockefeller, of Standard Oil fame, is largely regarded as becoming the world’s first billionaire in 1916. According to Oxfam, Musk is currently the world’s richest man, with a personal worth of slightly under $250 billion, based on Forbes numbers. In contrast, the group stated that about 5 billion people have become poorer as a result of the outbreak, with many developing countries unable to provide the financial assistance that wealthy countries could during lockdown periods.
Furthermore, Oxfam stated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which drove up oil and food prices, disproportionately affected the poorest countries. With Brazil hosting this year’s Group of 20 meeting of top industrial and developing countries, Lawson believes it is a “good time for Oxfam to raise awareness” about inequality. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has prioritized development-related concerns on the G20 agenda. Oxfam stated that measures that should be considered in an “inequality-busting” agenda include permanent taxation on the wealthiest in each country, more effective taxation of large firms, and a reinvigorated push against tax evasion.
Oxfam used Forbes numbers from November 2023 to compile the list of the top five richest billionaires. Their total wealth at the time was $869 billion, up from $340 billion in March 2020, representing a notional 155% rise. Oxfam used data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2019 and the UBS Global Wealth Report 2023 to calculate the wealth of the poorest 60% of the world’s population. Both followed the same methods.