PROTEST | Demonstrators take part in a protest ahead of the opening of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (REUTERS)
The combined fortunes of the world鈥檚 five richest men have more than doubled to $869 billion since 2020 while five billion people have been made poorer, anti-poverty group Oxfam said.
An Oxfam report, which comes as business elites gather this week for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, found that a billionaire is now either running or is the main shareholder of seven out of 10 of the world鈥檚 biggest companies.
Oxfam called on Monday for governments to rein in corporate power by breaking up monopolies; instituting taxes on excess profit and wealth; and promoting alternatives to shareholder control such as forms of employee ownership.
It estimated that 148 top corporations made $1.8 trillion in profits, 52 percent up on a three-year average, allowing hefty payouts to shareholders even as millions of workers faced a cost of living crisis as inflation led to wage cuts in real terms.
鈥淭his inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,鈥� said Oxfam International interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
Inequality
The Davos events were launched to champion 鈥渟takeholder capitalism,鈥� which the WEF says defines a corporation as being not just about maximizing profits but fulfilling 鈥渉uman and societal aspirations as part of the broader social system.鈥�
Oxfam said its report, based on data sources ranging from the International Labor Organization and World Bank to the Forbes annual rich list, showed such aspirations were far from being fulfilled.
鈥淲hat we know for sure is that today鈥檚 extreme system of shareholder capitalism, which puts ever-increasing returns to rich shareholders above all other objectives, is driving inequality,鈥� said Max Lawson, its head of inequality policy.
The inflation-adjusted surge in wealth of the top five billionaires was driven by strong gains in the assets of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, Amazon鈥檚 Jeff Bezos, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, and investor Warren Buffett.
Meanwhile, nearly 800 million workers saw their wages over the past two years fail to keep up with inflation, resulting on average in the equivalent of 25 days of lost annual income per worker, according to Oxfam鈥檚 analysis.
Of the world鈥檚 1,600 largest corporations, just 0.4 percent of them have publicly committed to paying workers a living wage and to supporting a living wage in their value chains, the study found.