26.05.2022

​Profiting from Pain: The Urgency of Taxing the Rich Amid a Surge in Billionaire Wealth and a Global Cost-of-Living Crisis

As food and energy prices rise to their highest level in decades, billionaires in these sectors have seen their fortunes rise by $453 billion in the last two years - equivalent to more than $1 billion every two days, a new Oxfam report reveals today. Global food prices have spiraled by over 30 per cent in the past year and 62 new food billionaires have been created over the last two years. Cargill, one of the world’s largest food traders, now counts 12 family members as billionaires, up from eight before the pandemic. The Cargill family, along with just three other companies, controls 70 per cent of the global agricultural market. Oxfam recently warned that rising inequality could push as many as 263 million more people into extreme poverty in 2022, reversing decades of progress. People in low-income countries spend more than twice as much of their income on food than those in rich countries, with those living through drought and conflict particularly vulnerable. In East Africa 28 million people are at risk of severe hunger. Unprecedented and dramatic increases have seen 573 new billionaires created during the two years of the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours. Billionaires’ combined wealth now stands at $12.7 trillion, equivalent to 13.9 per cent of global GDP - a three-fold increase, from 2000 when it stood at 4.4 per cent. The fortunes of the richest 20 billionaires are greater than the entire GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa. The research also found that five of the largest energy companies – BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and Chevron – are making a combined profit of $2,600 every second. Their profits are at a five year high, having increased by 45 per cent and earnings growth for the industry far outstrips that of any other. Record-high global food prices are sparking social and political upheaval and the UN recently estimated more than 193 million people across 53 countries are experiencing acute hunger. The pandemic has also created 40 new pharma billionaires. Pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 profit every second from their monopoly control of the Covid-19 vaccine, despite its development having been supported by billions of dollars in public investments.