Oxfam says taxing the world’s richest could save lives

The pandemic has made the rich richer while the income of the rest of the world — about 99% of the global population — dropped, according to a new Oxfam report titled “Inequality Kills.”

The wealth of the world’s 10 richest individuals doubled from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion during the pandemic, the charity said Monday.

“It has never been so important to start righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing back elites’ power and extreme wealth including through taxation — getting that money back into the real economy and to save lives,” said Oxfam International’s Executive Director Gabriela Bucher.

A 99% windfall tax on the pandemic gains of the world’s 10 richest people would raise enough money to pay for vaccines for the world — as well as finance various social measures for more than 80 countries, the report said.

The wealth of billionaires rose more since Covid started compared to the last 14 years, and a new billionaire was minted every 26 hours since the pandemic began, Oxfam said.

At the same time, the vast majority of the population are worse off after losing income during Covid-19, and 160 million more people fell into poverty, the release added.