Survival of the Richest: How we must tax the super-rich to fight inequality

This report was published by Oxfam International, UK, on January 16, 2023. It was written by Martin-Brehm Christensen, Christian Hallum, Alex Maitland, Quentin Parrinello and Chiara Putaturo –researchers working with Oxfam. The report states that in the last 10 years, the world’s richest one per cent has owned more than half of all new global wealth. This share has increased since 2020 with the richest one per cent owning about 63 per cent of all new wealth generated globally. This is six times the amount gained by the poorest 90 per cent of the world’s population since 2020 – which stands at as low as 10 per cent. In recent times, the world’s poorest people have been subjected to crises like increasing prices, salary cuts, and job layoffs, along with the unending fight against hunger and poverty, the report states. In order to combat the increasing economic, as well as “racial, gender, and colonial inequalities”, the report recommends taxing the rich for a more equal and sustainable world. The report adds that a tax of around five per cent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could generate about 1.7 trillion dollars annually – enough to get two billion people out of conditions of poverty...