'For every billionaire created in 30 hours, at least a million is pushed into poverty'
MANILA, Philippines — While the global health crisis has pushed many under extreme poverty with the loss of jobs and higher consumer prices, Oxfam International says the pandemic also produced one billionaire every 30 hours.
A study by the organization putting forward poverty alleviation showed that 573 individuals became billionaires amid the global health crisis. Oxfam International is expecting 263 million more individuals to be pushed into extreme poverty this year, translating to a million people every 33 hours.
“Billionaires’ fortunes have not increased because they are now smarter or working harder. Workers are working harder, for less pay and in worse conditions,” Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher said in a statement on Monday.
Forbes’ top billionaires list included three more Filipino billionaires this year, bringing the total to 20 compared with the 17 billionaires included in 2021. Filipino property mogul Manuel Villar Jr., who leads a number of listed companies, remained on top of the list with his net worth surging 15% to $8.3 billion from $7.2 billion.
The inequality pandemic
Oxfam’s study called it the inequality pandemic, taking note that:
- Billionaires saw their assets increase in two years almost as much as they did in 23 years. Citing data from Forbes, the world now has 573 more billionaires, putting the total to 2,668 individuals collectively worth $12.7 trillion. Oxfam International noted that this is a $3.78 trillion increase amid the global health crisis.
- The world’s richest 20 billionaires are said to be worth more than the entire gross domestic product of sub-Saharan South Africa.
- While consumer prices have been soaring in the past two years, billionaires in the food and energy sectors cash in a billion dollars every two days. Along with food and energy, they noted that those in the oil, pharmaceutical industry, and the tech sector have profited the most amid the global health crisis.
- While the incomes of the rich have since recovered, the poorest 40% in 2021 suffered the steepest decline in income.
- Women suffered more as the pandemic took a toll on “highly feminized workforces” such as tourism, hospitality, and care work as they took on unpaid work at home. While male employment recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, there were 13 million less women employed.
- Racial inequality, taking note, for example, of the preferential treatment given to white British individuals versus Bangladeshi amid England’s second wave of COVID-19 infections.
- The pandemic also highlighted the gaps in the world’s healthcare system with poorer nations suffering the most — where four times more people died because of the virus and only 13% of their population are inoculated with the vaccine.
The study comes with the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos, Switzerland.
“Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. The pandemic and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have, simply put, been a bonanza for them,” Oxfam International’s Bucher said.
Back home
Oxfam International said the pandemic pushed income inequality further after rising consumer prices coincided with the loss of 125 million full-time jobs in 2021.
In 2021, an Asian Development Bank report showed 4.7 million individuals in Southeast Asia were pushed into poverty that year after 9.3 million jobs were cut because of the pandemic.
While the Philippine Statistics Authority reported a decline in the number of unemployed Filipinos to 2.87 million in March, lower compared with the 3.13 million individuals logged the previous month. But more Filipinos are rating their families as poor.
But the country’s latest Social Weather Stations survey showed that the number of Filipinos who rate their families as poor increased to 10.9 million in their April study, increasing from the 10.7 million logged in December last year. Self-rated poverty was highest among respondents based in Mindanao.
Malacañang admitted that there is “much more” that is needed to help alleviate Filipino families from poverty.
To adapt to the health crisis, the Philippine government has shifted its pandemic response from implementing harsh quarantine measures, that would mean closing down businesses and economic activity while the population stays at home, to targeted lockdowns in areas with high COVID-19 cases.
Meanwhile, Oxfam International are calling on the world’s governments to temporarily impose a 90% tax on excess profits on companies across all industries, have a one-off “solidarity tax” imposed on new billionaire wealth, and add a 2% to 5% wealth tax on the worlds’ richest.
“They must agree now to increase the taxation of wealth and corporate windfall profits, and to use this money to protect ordinary people across the world and reduce inequality and suffering.” — with reports from Franco Luna and The STAR’s Janvic Mateo, Michael Punongbayan, and Alexis Romero
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