As the persistent pandemic has raged on, the world’s richest have only got richer, while tens of millions of people, most of them living outside the U.S., have taken a dive into poverty.
In a new report released Sunday, called “Inequality Kills,” Oxfam details how the wealth of billionaires increased more than ever before over the past two years
By Dave Allen for Discount Gold & Silver
As the persistent pandemic has raged on, the world’s richest have only got richer, while tens of millions of people, most of them living outside the U.S., have taken a dive into poverty.
In a new report released Sunday, called “Inequality Kills,” Oxfam details how the wealth of billionaires increased more than ever before over the past two years.
The Infamous Top Ten vs. The Have-Nots
In fact, the ten richest men in the world — yes, they’re all guys — more than doubled their wealth, from a combined $700 billion to $1.5 trillion.
On the other end of the totem pole, the incomes of the other 99% of us are worse off because of the pandemic.
The report’s authors write, “Widening economic, gender, and racial inequalities — as well as the inequality that exists between countries — are tearing our world apart.”
They argue that this is not by chance, but choice, where “economic violence” is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful people. Often by them, too.
This harms us all — the poorest among us, women and girls, and racialized groups the most.
Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds, according to the report; that’s 21,000 people every day.
The study adds that from March 2020 to November 2021, a new billionaire was created every 26 hours.
Meanwhile, the organization estimates that over 160 million people have been pushed into poverty around the world during that time.
How Inequality Kills
Here are some of the major ways the report says inequality kills:
Yet, while the wealthiest cause the most damage, they can afford to avoid the worst impacts. It’s the poorest people who have contributed the least to the problem who are suffering the most.
So far, wealthy nations have delivered only 14% of the 1.8 billion doses that were initially promised.
And pharmaceutical companies have delivered only 12% of the doses they pledged to help lesser developed countries.
Sadly, a person’s ability to access a desired vaccine is often dependent on the country where they live.
During the pandemic, women were especially hard-hit economically because many of them worked in industries with higher job losses. Others had to leave work to care for children and elderly parents.
The pandemic has set back gender pay parity at least 99 years. When all is said and done, women lost $800 billion in earnings in 2020. Plus, 13 million fewer women are at work now than in 2019.
At the same time, during England’s second wave of the pandemic, Bangladeshi people were five times more likely to die than white Brits. In Brazil, Blacks were 1.5 times more likely to die than whites.
In the U.S, Black and Latino people also work disproportionately in industries like the service or domestic sectors, which have faced significant job loss.
That holds true for health care or agriculture as well, where “essential” workers stayed on the frontlines as others were allowed refuge at home.
What to Do?
The report concludes, “This inequality crisis is literally killing people. It’s time for our leaders to take action and ensure that we are tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice.”
That’s why Oxfam America is "calling on President Biden and Congress to make sure billionaires pay their fair share of taxes."
Between 2014 and 2018, the average American household paid 14% in federal taxes, but America’s 25 richest billionaires paid only 3% in income tax.
Oxfam America president Abby Maxman says, “One of the single most powerful tools we have to address this level of egregious and deadly inequality is to tax the rich.”
She added, “Instead of lining the pockets of the ultra-wealthy, we should be investing billions of dollars into our economies, our children and our planet, paving the way for a more equal and sustainable future.”
Millions of Americans received increased unemployment aid and three stimulus checks from the federal government during the pandemic.
Oxfam International’s executive director Gabriela Bucher observes, “There is no shortage of money...
“There is only a shortage of courage and imagination needed to break free from the failed, deadly straitjacket of extreme neoliberalism.”