PARIS – The share of global wealth of the world’s richest individuals soared at a record pace during the Covid-19 pandemic, a report on inequality showed today.
Since 1995, the slice held by billionaires has risen from 1% to 3%, according to the World Inequality Report.
“This increase was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, last year marked the steepest increase in global billionaires’ share of wealth on record,” the document said.
The club of the richest 1% has taken more than a third of all additional wealth accumulated since 1995, while the bottom 50% captured just 2%.
“After more than 18 months of Covid-19, the world is even more polarised,” said Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics.
“While the wealth of billionaires rose by more than €3.6 trillion (RM17.17 trillion), 100 million more individuals joined the ranks of extreme poverty,” said Chancel, noting that extreme poverty had been previously falling for 25 years.
A real-time ranking by Forbes magazine shows that the top 10 richest individuals each have a net worth exceeding US$100 billion (RM423.2 billion), with Tesla boss Elon Musk on top with US$264.5 billion.
Only one of them is not American – LVMH luxury group chief Bernard Arnault – and all but two are tech industry leaders whose fortunes have been turbocharged by soaring company share prices.
The 228-page report, whose contributors include French economist Thomas Piketty, calls for a “modest progressive wealth tax on global multi-millionaires” in order to redistribute wealth, along with measures to prevent tax evasion.
“Given the large volume of wealth concentration, modest progressive taxes can generate significant revenues for governments,” the report said. – AFP, December 7, 2021
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