The World's Richest Men Doubled Their Wealth During COVID & Here's What They're Worth Now
"Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic," Oxfam says.
While much of the world felt a financial squeeze during the COVID-19 pandemic, the richest men on the planet were making money like never before.
The world's 10 richest men have actually seen their combined wealth double since the pandemic began, according to a new report by Oxfam, which looks at how much money the 1% makes.
And they made a lot. The 10 richest people saw their wealth increased at a rate of $15,000 per second, adding up to be about $1.3 billion a day since the pandemic began.
The worth of their combined fortunes went from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion, while the other 99% of humanity saw their income fall during the pandemic, according to Oxfam.
"If these ten men were to lose 99.999% of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99% of all the people on this planet," Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, said in a news release.
And while the rich got richer, Oxfam says the pandemic forced 160 million people across the globe into poverty.
Oxfam made its calculations based on Forbes' 2021 billionaires list, along with Credit Suisse Research Institute's Global Wealth Databook 2021.
According to Forbes' list, the wealthiest 10 people on the planet are:
- Jeff Bezos
- Elon Musk
- Bernard Arnault & family
- Bill Gates
- Mark Zuckerberg
- Warren Buffett
- Larry Ellison
- Larry Page
- Sergey Brin
- Mukesh Ambani
Most of those billionaires are from the United States, and three of them actually used their money to build and launch their own rockets during the pandemic.
Since COVID-19 began, the fortune of these billionaires has risen more than it has in the past 14 years, making it the most significant surge in their wealth ever recorded, Oxfam says.
The report also suggests that if a one-off 99% tax was imposed on these billionaires, that money could pay for enough vaccines for the whole world, provide universal health care, social protection, reduce gender-based violence and fund climate adaptation in over 80 countries.
Even after such a tax, these billionaires would be $8 billion wealthier than they were before the pandemic.
The report also points out that the impact of the pandemic has been worse along "racialized, marginalized and gendered lines," Bucher said.
"Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic," she said.
"They now have six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people."