The Rich got more Richer
“An Oxfam Report”
Oxfam, an organization striving to eradicate poverty around the world, has published its latest report, which describes how the wealth of the world’s 10 richest people has doubled tremendously in the two years after the pandemic. It has been said in this report that the wealth of the 10 richest people in the world increased from 700 billion to 1.5 trillion. That is, their wealth grew at an average rate of 1.3 billion every day.
In the Oxfam India report, it has been told about India that during the covid-19 epidemic, the wealth of the rich got doubled, while on the other hand, a large population struggled with the epidemic and poverty. It has been advised in this report that the government should focus on revising its policies of wealth distribution. That last year when the country was battling a terrible second wave, 40 new people became billionaires in the country. These people have total assets of 720 billion. Even if we include the total wealth of 40 percent of India’s population, it will be more than that.
The report states that the world’s 500 richest people have seen their wealth increase by trillion in the last year. Talking about India alone, the number of billionaires in the country has become so much that even if the billionaires of all three countries — France, Sweden, and Switzerland — are added, their number will be less than India.
Some interesting things from the report :
According to the report, the wealth of the 10 richest people is enough to provide school education and higher education to every child of the country for 25 years. Last year, the number of billionaires in India increased by 39 percent to 142. Indian billionaires have total assets of US 719 billion (over Rs 53 lakh crore).
The total wealth of the country’s richest 98 people is equal to the total wealth of the poorest 555 crore people. If the 10 richest Indian billionaires had to spend 1 million US dollars a day, then their current wealth would be exhausted in 84 years.
Imposing an annual wealth tax on these billionaires would provide USD 78.3 billion each year, which could increase the government health budget by 271 percent.
According to the report, covid-19 started as a health crisis, but now it has become an economic crisis. During the pandemic, the wealthiest 10 percent acquired 45% of the national wealth, while the bottom 50% of the population received only six percent.
Oxfam is advocating that the government levy a 1% fee on the wealthiest 10% of the population to fund healthcare and education. The fortunes of India’s ten wealthiest billionaires would be sufficient to support the country’s children’s school and higher education for further almost 25 years.
