The world’s richest people are getting richer. Their wealth is growing by up to $100 million a day. On the other hand, poverty is increasing.
On the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Oxfam announced that the number of billionaires in the world increased by 204 new billionaires last year. Oxfam said that the wealth of the super-rich is growing: their total wealth has increased from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in 2024, in one year. In contrast, 733 million people do not have enough food – about 152 million more than in 2019. Oxfam’s “Takers not Makers” study reveals that there are currently 2,769 billionaires in the world. Their wealth has grown three times faster in 2024 than a year earlier, by about $100 million a day.
GERMANY HAS 130 BILLIONAIRES
The total wealth of the super-rich in Germany will increase by $26.8 billion in 2024, to a total of $625.4 billion. Nine new billionaires were added, bringing the total to 130 billionaires in Germany. Germany now has the most billionaires after the US, China and India. Oxfam calculates that German billionaires benefit above average from inheritance. While 36 percent of billionaire wealth worldwide comes from inheritance, in Germany this figure rises to 71 percent.
At the same time, poverty has increased significantly in recent years. Many people are unable to maintain their usual standard of living. “This extreme inequality is largely caused by unfair tax policies,” explained Oxfam spokesman Manuel Schmitt. “The super-rich often pay less in taxes and contributions than middle-class families,” he says.
OXFAM: KËRCËNIMET PËR DEMOKRACINË
According to the authors of the study, the rich are the biggest beneficiaries of the crisis years. From the perspective of this humanitarian organization, the growing gap has consequences for the global situation, but also for the situation in national societies. The super-rich have purposefully ensured that unjust structures remain stable. “Economically strong countries in the global north continue to set rules that benefit the super-rich and their corporations,” the report says. This, the study says, is still a consequence of colonialism.
Oxfam Germany’s executive director, Serap Altinisik, warns of negative consequences for democracies. “Wealth goes hand in hand with political power. We see this today with the return of President Donald Trump: a billionaire president supported by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk,” says Altinisik, adding: “The growth of the wealth of the super-rich is unlimited, while there is hardly any progress in the fight against poverty.” (DW)