A changed world
The covid pandemic has spewed out many new criteria and this included the wold economy as well where new trends and developments are being watched keenly. One such interesting development has been reported by rights body Oxfam International which has claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic has seen one new billionaire emerging every 30 hours, while nearly one million people could be pushed into extreme poverty every 33 hours this year.
Releasing a report titled ‘Profiting from Pain’ here in Davos, Oxfam claimed that the cost of essential goods rises faster than it has in decades and as such billionaires in the food and energy sectors are increasing their fortunes by USD one billion every two days. The report showed that 573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours.
Billionaires’ wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in 23 years combined. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 per cent of global GDP, marking a three-fold increase from 4.4 per cent in 2000.
Oxfam’s new research also showed that corporations in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors — where monopolies are especially common — are posting record-high profits, even as wages have barely budged and workers struggle with decades-high prices amid COVID-19.
According to the report, five of the largest energy companies — BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and Chevron — are together making USD 2,600 profit every second, and there are now 62 new food billionaires.
Together with just three other companies, the Cargill family controls 70 per cent of the global agricultural market and the family alone now has 12 billionaires, up from eight before the pandemic.
From Sri Lanka to Sudan, record-high global food prices are sparking social and political upheaval, while 60 per cent of low-income countries are on the brink of debt distress.
Notably, 2,668 billionaires — 573 more than in 2020 — own USD 12.7 trillion, an increase of USD 3.78 trillion, while the world’s ten richest men own more wealth than the bottom 40 per cent of humanity or 3.1 billion people.
The pandemic has created 40 new pharma billionaires and alleged that pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making USD 1,000 profit every second just from their monopoly control of the COVID-19 vaccine, despite its development having been supported by billions of dollars in public investments.
The present trend is creating a new order in the economic world with only a handful of people gaining an upper hand on the resources which will further widen the divide between the poor and the rich.
Even the Oxfam report has recommended that the governments should urgently introduce one-off solidarity taxes on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls to fund support for people facing rising food and energy costs and a fair and sustainable recovery from COVID-19.
Besides, it also called for ending the crisis profiteering by introducing a temporary excess profit tax of 90 per cent to capture the windfall profits of big corporations across all industries.
Though this seems highly unlikely to be accepted but a common ground needs to be prepared to set things rolling in this direction so that only a few should not be able to monopolize the resources that are needed to address much bigger concerns including food security and poverty elevation programmes world wide.
KV Network
