TLI Staff
New Delhi: Ahead of the annual jamboree of top business tycoons, political leaders and policy-makers in Davos, global NGO Oxfam in its report has said that world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60% of the world population.
“Our broken economies are lining the pockets of billionaires and big business at the expense of ordinary men and women. No wonder people are starting to question whether billionaires should even exist,” Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said.
As per the report, the 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than all the women in Africa. Further, women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day —a contribution to the global economy of at least $10.8 trillion a year, more than three times the size of the global tech industry.
“Getting the richest one percent to pay just 0.5 % extra tax on their wealth over the next 10 years would equal the investment needed to create 117 million jobs in sectors such as elderly and childcare, education and health,” the Oxfam report said.
As Union budget for 2020-21 is scheduled on February 1, the report gives clue to the Modi government for possible source of revenue so that spending on social infrastructure could be raised thus benefitting the poor.
The report said that the super-rich use their wealth to pay as little tax as possible by employing armies of tax accountants who deliver them an average annual return of 7.4% on their wealth. At the same time, enabled by governments, they are able to use a secretive global network of tax havens, as revealed by the Panama Papers and other exposés.
Studies have shown that the super-rich are avoiding as much as 30% of their tax liabilities, denying governments billions of dollars that could be spent on inequality-busting services like health and education – which would in turn help reduce the consequences for women and girls of undervalued and unbalanced unpaid care work.
The Oxfam report which is keenly watched by policy makers across the world said that women and girls are among those who benefit least from today’s economic system. They spend billions of hours cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly.
“Unpaid care work is the ‘hidden engine’ that keeps the wheels of our economies, businesses and societies moving. It is driven by women who often have little time to get an education, earn a decent living or have a say in how our societies are run, and who are therefore trapped at the bottom of the economy,” Oxfam India Chief said.
Report Highlights
• In 2019, the world’s billionaires, only 2,153 people, have more wealth than 4.6 billion people.
• The 22 richest men have more wealth than all the women in Africa.
• The world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people.
• If you saved $10,000 a day since the building of the pyramids in Egypt you would have one-fifth the average fortune of the 5 richest billionaires.
• If everyone were to sit on their wealth piled up in $100 bills, most of humanity would be sitting on the floor. A middle-class person in a rich country would be sitting at the height of a chair. The world’s two richest men would be sitting in outer space.
• The monetary value of women’s unpaid care work globally for women aged 15 and over is at least $10.8 trillion annually – three times the size of the world’s tech industry.
• Taxing an additional 0.5% of the wealth of the richest 1% over the next 10 years is equal to investments needed to create 117 million jobs in education, health and elderly care and other sectors, and to close care deficits.