A new billionaire has been minted nearly every day during the pandemic
Some 573 people have joined the Forty new pandemic billionaires were created in the pharmaceutical industry, which has been at the forefront of the battle against Covid-19 and the beneficiary of billions in public funding.The tech sector has spawned many billionaires, including seven of the 10 world’s richest people, such as Telsa’s Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. These men increased their wealth by $436 billion to $934 billion over the past two years, after adjusting for inflation.Tax the richTo counter the meteoric growth in inequality and help those struggling with the rise in prices, Oxfam is pushing governments to tax the wealthy and corporations.It is calling for a temporary 90% tax on excess corporate profits, as well as a one-time tax on billionaires’ wealth.The group would also like to levy a permanent wealth tax on the super-rich. It suggests a 2% tax on assets greater than $5 million, rising to 5% for net worth above $1 billion. This could raise $2.5 trillion worldwide.Wealth taxes, however, have not been embraced by many governments. Efforts to levy taxes on the net worth of the richest Americans have failed to advance in Congress in recent years.
