Richest 1% amassed almost two-thirds of new wealth created since 2020: Oxfam
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Published Mon, Jan 16 20235:00 AM EST 
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- Since 2020, the richest 1% of people have accumulated close to two-thirds of all new wealth created around the world, a new report from Oxfam says.
- Taxes must be increased for the ultra-rich as a "strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy," Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International said.
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Over the last two years, the richest 1% of people have accumulated close to two-thirds of all new wealth created around the world, a new report from Oxfam says.
A total of $42 trillion in new wealth has been created since 2020, with $26 trillion, or 63%, of that being amassed by the top 1% of the ultra-rich, according to the report. The remaining 99% of the global population collected just $16 trillion of new wealth, the global poverty charity says.
"A billionaire gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent," the report, released as the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, reads.
It suggests that the pace at which wealth is being created has sped up, as the world's richest 1% amassed around half of all new wealth over the past 10 years.
Oxfam's report analyzed data on global wealth creation from Credit Suisse, as well figures from the Forbes Billionaire's List and the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire's list to assess changes to the wealth of the ultra-rich.
The research contrasts this wealth creation with reports from the World Bank, which said in October 2022 that it would likely not meet its goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 as the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down efforts to combat poverty.
Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, called for taxes to be increased for the ultra-rich, saying that this was a "strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy."
In the report's press release, she also said changes to taxation policies would help tackle ongoing crises around the world.
"Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today's overlapping crises. It's time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow 'trickling down' to everyone else," Bucher said.
Coinciding crises around the world that feed into each other and produce greater adversity together than they would separately are also referred to as a "polycrisis." In recent weeks, researchers, economists and politicians have suggested that the world is currently facing such a crisis as pressures from the cost-of-living crisis, climate change, and other pressures are colliding.
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This is the truth about wealth, inequality and why taxes must br raised on the rich for all ours sake!
Just remember the old saying. "It takes money to make money". This isn't a big surprise............or shouldn't be.
Nice cliche but, it has zero to do with it!
That cliché connotes leveraged capital. Leveraged capital is the key distinction in the notion of haves vs. have nots.
Stated simply, the richer one is the greater potential for growing richer at a faster pace.
So is "taxes must be raised on the rich for all ours sake!". The wealthy grow their wealth when their investments increase in value, not because they are printing money or digging gold out of the back yard. And those investments are only on paper and the value is only a guess as to what someone will pay for it. If the wealthy need to sell a portion of their investments to pay those taxes, how much of the value will go down due to simple supply and demand? If a bunch of people all put IBM stock on the market for sale (for example), what happens to IBM stock during that sale? It's not hard to follow as we've seen this action several different times.
And then you also have the changes needed for tax implications. If you are going to tax an increase in value (remember that this increase is only on paper at this point) then don't you also need to allow for the loss should the value decrease?
These problems to me seem to suggest a consumption tax would be easier to implement. The wealthy are always going to be buying their jets and yachts so go for the tax there and drop the income tax completely.
Do you support creating a Value Added Tax here like our liberal European friends have?
I think it’s more likely the worthless fucktards running the democrat party and their liberal sycophants want to institute some kind of wealth tax. Or charge them a tax to invest into companies. Because the rich obviously have more money than they need.
You have this fantasy that the rich get a W2 and they go to the tax bracket and write a check. The rich shelter their money like Trump for instance. He uses various tax shelters to reduce or eliminate federal taxes as do many wealthy people.
Stop the loopholes and pass throughs.
That has been obvious for thousands of years. When have the super wealthy EVER just said "well, that's enough for me, here you go everyone else!" ? Increase income taxes on the top earners and raise the capital gains tax.
Imo it is the very wealthy that end up having a hand in how tax code is written.
They basically threaten our system with taking their money off shore or some other thing.
They hold our system hostage to get favorable measures.