wealth

Pressure is piling on the G20 to lead a global push to increase taxes on the richest citizens back to past levels that most people believe were fairer and more useful for society. 

The richest 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, reveals a new Oxfam report today. During the past decade, the richest 1 percent had captured around half of all new wealth. 

A group of over 100 millionaires and billionaires from nine countries published today an open letter to government and business leaders, calling for permanent annual wealth taxes on the very richest to help reduce extreme inequality and raise revenue for sustained, long-term increases in public services like healthcare. 

The world’s ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion —at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day— during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall and over 160 million more people forced into poverty. 

Why is it taken for granted that a person is “successful” because they are a self-made millionaire? Who decides what is a success, and what is a failure? These questions help us understand what dominant narratives are, how they are shaped, and how they affect our lives. It’s time for them to be contested. With the right tools, change movements can start to tell a new story.

While India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most unequal countries. The richest have cornered a huge part of the wealth created while the poor are still struggling to earn a minimum wage and access quality education and healthcare services. Join our campaign and fight inequality today.

Billionaire fortunes increased by 12 percent last year – or $2.5 billion a day - while the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth decline by 11 percent, reveals a new report from Oxfam today.

Despite an impressive economic growth since 2005, poverty still affects millions of people’s lives in Kenya. But extreme inequality is not inevitable, it is a matter of political choice. The Kenyan government can reduce it to sustainable levels and ensure a more equal and prosperous future for all Kenyans.

Despite being one of largest economies, Brazil is listed as one of the most unequal countries in the world. Although it has left millions of people out of poverty over the last decades, it still faces a huge gap between the country’s richest and the rest of the population. Learn more and support Oxfam's work on inequality.

A world where more new billionaires have been created in a year than ever before shows signs of economic sickness rather than health.