GNV News January 22, 2025

International NGO Oxfam reported that the wealth of the world’s billionaires increased by 2 trillion US dollars in 2024, growing three times faster than the previous year and increasing by 570 million US dollars per day. Meanwhile, the same report says the number of people living in poverty has not changed since 1990. Also, there were 2,769 billionaires in 2024, about 200 more than the previous year, and the billionaires’ total assets rose by 2 trillion dollars from 2023 to 15 trillion dollars. In 2024, Oxfam predicted that trillionaires would emerge within the next decade, but it has revised the report to say that if the current trend continues, at least five trillionaires will appear within 10 years. Oxfam also says that addressing global inequality requires taxing the wealthy and abolishing tax havens.

Coinciding with Oxfam’s latest global inequality report, the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, the Davos conference, is being held in Switzerland from January 20. While the World Economic Forum addresses global issues and is considered highly influential in shaping worldwide political and economic trends, it is also criticized for the fact that many of its attendees are people in whom power and wealth are concentrated. At the 2019 Davos meeting, Dutch historian Rutger Bregman said, “1,500 private jets are coming in and you’re talking about the environment. (…) Here I’ve heard words like participation, justice, fairness, transparency, but no one is pointing out tax avoidance. The rich are not paying their fair share. (…) Let’s talk about taxes. Taxes, taxes, taxes.” Will there come a day when the wealthy at Davos face the reality of global inequality and discuss dismantling the mechanisms that make them billionaires?

Learn more about the Davos conference → “The Davos Conference and Another World”

Learn more about how inequality is reported → “Why don’t the media report on the rapidly increasing global inequality?”

Learn more about the tax haven issue → “Tax havens and the islands near the Caribbean”

People gathered at the Davos conference (Photo: Drop of Light / Shutterstock.com)
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/davos-switzerland-jan-24-2019-working-1298395912