The combined wealth of the world's billionaires increased by US$ 2 trillion in 2024. This represents a threefold increase compared to the previous year, and it happened while the number of poor people has hardly changed since 1990.
These figures are part of an Oxfam report released on Monday (20). The document “Takers not Makers: The Unjust Poverty and Unearned Wealth from Colonialism” was unveiled on the same day that politicians and big businessmen are meeting for another edition of the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland.
According to Oxfam, in 2024, the number of billionaires in the world rose from 2,565 to 2,769. Their combined wealth rose from 13 trillion dollars to 15 trillion dollars.
This fraction of the population became 5.7 billion dollars richer every day in the past year. Each of the ten richest people in the world earned an average of 100 million dollars a day.
According to Oxfam, even if these ten people at the top of the pyramid lost 99% of their wealth, they would still be billionaires.
Trillionaires in 2035
Oxfam has been monitoring social inequality around the world for years. Through its studies, it denounces the astonishing increase in income concentration.
Because of this concentration, in 2023, Oxfam predicted that the first trillionaire would be born within a decade. This year, however, due to the intensifying pace of accumulation of wealth by billionaires, it warned that in ten years the world will probably have at least five trillionaires.
“This ever-growing concentration of wealth is enabled by a monopolistic concentration of power, with billionaires increasingly exerting influence,” the organization declared.
“The crown jewel of this oligarchy is a billionaire president, backed and bought by the world’s richest man Elon Musk, running the world’s largest economy. We present this report as a stark wake-up call that ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few,” added Amitabh Behar, Oxfam's executive director.
Unearned wealth
According to Oxfam, much of the wealth of the richest is not the result of their work. It is undeserved. “60% of the wealth of today's billionaires comes from inheritance, monopolies or connections with the powerful.”
A survey by Forbes magazine cited by Oxfam points out that all billionaires under 30 inherit their wealth. Another survey, this one by UBS, says that a thousand billionaires will leave 5.2 trillion dollars (more than R$30 trillion) to their heirs.
“The ultrarich like to tell us that getting rich takes skill, grit and hard work. But the truth is most wealth is taken, not made. So many of the so-called ‘self-made’ are actually heirs to vast fortunes, handed down through generations of unearned privilege,” added Behar.
“Many of the super-rich, particularly in Europe, owe part of their wealth to historical colonialism and the exploitation of poorer countries,” stated the organization, which denounces that this same kind of exploitation exists to this day.
According to the organization, the richest 1% in countries of the Global North, such as the US, the UK and France, extracted 30 million dollars per hour from low- and middle-income countries in 2023 alone. “The Global North controls 69% of global wealth, 77% of billionaires' wealth and is home to 68% of billionaires, despite making up just 21% of the global population.”
“Meanwhile, the money desperately needed in every country to invest in teachers, buy medicines and create good jobs is being siphoned off to the bank accounts of the super-rich,” said Behar.
UN data cited by Oxfam indicate that low- and middle-income countries spend, on average, almost half of their budgets paying off debts to rich creditors. This far exceeds the combined investment in education and health. Between 1970 and 2023, governments in Global South countries paid 3.3 trillion dollars in interest to creditors in the North.
Oxfam recommends that governments tax the richest, end tax havens and stop the flow of wealth from the South to the North. “This means breaking up monopolies, democratizing patent rules, and regulating corporations to ensure they pay living wages and cap CEO pay.”
“Governments need to commit to ensuring that, both globally and at a national level, the incomes of the top 10% are no higher than the bottom 40%”, demanded the organization. “Reducing inequality could end poverty three times faster.”
Edited by: Dayze Rocha
