The combined wealth of the 81 wealthiest people exceeds half of the aggregate global figure, a report by charity organization Oxfam shows.
In the last two years, 1% of the richest people in the world have increased their wealth by $26 trillion, while the global figure has increased by $42 trillion, meaning that the wealthiest people accounted for two thirds of the growth, while the remaining 99% of the population altogether increased their wealth by only $16 trillion, according to the report presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
This indicates that the rate at which the wealthiest people are accumulating money has accelerated, CNBC noted.
Oxfam International executive director Gabriela Bucher called for higher taxes on the super-rich, saying it was “a prerequisite for reducing inequality and reviving democracy. In her view, changes in tax policy would help address ongoing crises around the world.
“Taxing the super-rich and large corporations is the way out of today’s overlapping crises. It’s time to shatter the convenient myth that tax cuts for the wealthiest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else,” Bucher said.
The richest 1 percent account for 45.6 percent of the world’s wealth; the 50 percent with the least income account for just 0.75 percent, according to Oxfam calculations. Over the past two years, the wealth of billionaires has grown by an average of $2.7 billion a day.
There are only 124 women and five blacks among the 1,000 richest people.
The top personal income tax rates have become lower and less progressive, the report noted. Meanwhile, the average tax rate on the wealthiest in the OECD (which includes 38 nations) has fallen from 58% in 1980 to 42% recently. For the 100 countries, the average is even lower, around 31%.
As a result, many of the richest people on the planet pay almost no taxes. For example, the real tax rate of one of the richest people in history, Ilon Musk, head of electric car maker Tesla, is 3.2%. Another richest man, the head of Amazon.com Inc. Jeff Bezos – pays taxes at a rate of less than 1 percent. Meanwhile, one of the market traders Oxfam works with in Uganda, Aber Kristin, pays 40% of his income in taxes.
