Oxfam calls for higher taxes on the richest to reduce extreme inequalities

the NGO oxfaman organization that seeks to combat poverty in 90 countries, indicated that if taxes are raised and policies are applied to make the world more equal, the number of billionaires could be cut in half by 2030. This would be a step to face the great social inequalities.

According to the report titled “Survival of the richest”, produced by the NGO, billionaires have doubled their wealth in the last ten years. Thus, the richest 1% of the world’s population has earned 74 times more than the poorest 50%.

World crisis

In addition, the study indicates that millionaires have become rich in the midst of the crisis that affected most countries in the world and caused the rise in the cost of living. This after the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalation of food and energy prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Since 2020, the wealth of billionaires has increased by US$2.7 billion a day,” Oxfam reports. Likewise, food and energy companies are the ones that most doubled their profits last year, the organization points out.

Measures

Oxfam claims that to progressively redistribute wealth and reduce extreme inequality, taxes must be applied at interest rates. “The world should try to cut wealth and the number of billionaires in half by 2030, raising taxes on the top 1% and adopting other policies that kill off billionaires”, the report stated.

These measures would return wealth and the number of billionaires to 2012 levels. “The ultimate goal should be to go further and abolish billionaires altogether, as part of a fairer and more rational distribution of global wealth,” says Oxfam.

Likewise, citing data from the American journalistic investigation ProPublica, the NGO assures that many of the richest people in the world barely pay taxes.

For example, in the case of Tesla boss Elon Musk, the “real tax rate” was just 3.2% between 2014 and 2018, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos paid less than 1%.