Davos, Switzerland — BillionairesWealth will grow three times faster in 2024 than a year earlier, the top anti-poverty group said on Monday, as some of the world's political and financial elite prepared for an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Oxfam Internationalin its latest assessment of global inequality to coincide with the opening World Economic Forum also predicts that there will be at least five trillionaires within the next decade. A year ago, the group predicted that only one trillionaire would emerge during that time.
OxFam research adds weight to a outgoing President Biden's warning last week about the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few super-wealthy people.” The scathing report by a group called Takers Not Makers also said the number of people living in poverty had barely changed since 1990.
The World Economic Forum is expected to welcome around 3,000 participants, including business leaders, academics, government officials and community leaders, to its annual meeting in the Alpine village of Davos.
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President-elect Donald Trump, who visited Davos twice during his first term and was appointed to be sworn in on MondayHe is expected to take part in the forum event on Thursday. He has long advocated accumulating wealth – including his own – and counts multi-billionaire Elon Musk as a top adviser.
“What you see at the moment is a billionaire president being sworn in today, backed by the richest man. So it's pretty much the crown jewel of the world's oligarchies,” Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said in an interview, referring to Trump and Musk.
“It's not about one specific person. This is an economic system that we have created where billionaires can now largely shape economic policy, social policy, which ultimately gives them more and more profits,” he added.
As well as Biden's call to force billionaires to “start paying their fair share” with the US tax code, Oxfam – a global human rights group – called on governments to tax the richest to reduce inequality and extreme wealth and “bring down the new aristocracy”.
The group called for steps such as eliminating monopolies, capping CEO pay and regulating corporations to ensure they pay a “living wage” to workers.
In 2024, many investors have made significant gains with the high performance of leading technology companies and stock indexes such as the S&P 500, as well as the price of gold and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Oxfam reported that the wealth of billionaires grew by $2 trillion last year, or about $5.7 billion a day, three times faster than in 2023. The number of billionaires increased by 204 to 2,769, and the wealth of the 10 richest people increased by almost $100 million a day. on average, he said.
Citing World Bank data, the group pointed to persistent poverty, saying the number of people living on less than $6.85 a day had “barely changed” since 1990. Oxfam used “The Real Time Billionaires List” Forbes as of late November for data on the ultra-rich.
In contrast, at least four new billionaires were “expected” every week in 2024, with three-fifths of billionaire wealth coming from inheritance, monopoly power or “family connections”, the report said.
On average, low- and middle-income countries spend nearly half of their national budgets on debt service, according to Oxfam. It also notes that life expectancy in Africa is just under 64 years, compared to more than 79 years in Europe.
Despite the widening gap between the über rich and the poor, the annual conference in Davos, which officially begins on Tuesday, is likely to focus again this year on making money and making deals. diversity and the diminishing climate in the business world.
The artificial intelligence continues to grow as a tool for business to improve efficiency will also be a central topic at Davos again, despite fears in many sectors that artificial intelligence could disrupt many white-collar jobs and displace workers in a number of industries.
Trump's return for a second term is likely to be on the lips of many in Davos, as are ongoing conflicts, including the wars in Ukraine and Sudan, along with hopes for continued ceasefire that began on Sunday between Hamas and Israel, ending their devastating 15-month war in Gaza.
Last week, the forum's organizers released a survey of 900 experts for the Global Risks Report, which found that conflicts between countries are the biggest concern, followed by extreme weather, economic confrontation, misinformation and disinformation, and “polarization society” – an allusion to the gap between the rich and the poor.
As in previous years, protesters took to the streets calling for greater economic equality, taxation of the rich and other demands.
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Some have blocked roads to Davos, snarling traffic in places and delaying travel for some of the participants in the event, which runs until Friday.