(In the 7th paragraph it must correctly say the chairwoman of the board)
DAVOS (dpa-AFX) – The wealth of the world’s super-rich is growing ever faster. This emerges from a report published by the emergency aid and development organization Oxfam before the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos. According to this, there are now 2,769 billionaires worldwide – 204 new ones were added last year alone. At the same time, the number of people living below the World Bank’s expanded poverty line is stagnating and the number of hungry people is increasing.
The Oxfam report is based on data from various sources. For example, Oxfam combined Forbes estimates of billionaires’ wealth with data from the World Bank and data from the UBS World Wealth Report.
“Broad shoulders have to carry more”
“The current figures from Oxfam confirm a development that we are observing with great concern – society is drifting further apart economically,” commented Michaela Engelmeier, chairwoman of the Social Association of Germany (SoVD).
The association is increasingly receiving feedback from its own social counseling services that more and more people no longer know how to live their lives. More and more people felt left behind. Engelmeier: “Politicians urgently need to take countermeasures here. Germany has been in constant crisis mode for years and that’s why it’s especially important now: Broad shoulders have to carry more.”
Will there soon be the first trillionaire?
In their analysis, Oxfam comes to the conclusion that the world could already have five dollar trillionaires within a decade. Last year, billionaires’ assets grew three times more than in the previous year. It increased from 13 to 15 trillion US dollars.
The wealth of a billionaire increased by an average of two million US dollars per day. The richest ten billionaires even became richer by an average of $100 million per day. Even if they lost 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires, Oxfam said.
“The wealth growth of the super-rich is limitless, while there is little progress in combating poverty and Germany, for example, is even cutting back on support for low-income countries,” criticized the executive chairwoman of Oxfam Germany, Serap Altinisik.
“The Oxfam report is outrageous, but unfortunately to be expected. The gap between rich and poor continues to widen inexorably in Germany,” wrote Christian Görke, First Parliamentary Managing Director of the Left Party group in the Bundestag. Görke calls for a wealth tax and “an inheritance tax that really deserves the name” as a solution.
In Germany there are many billionaires thanks to inheritance
According to the Oxfam report, Germany has the fourth most billionaires in the world. Their number rose last year by nine to 130. Their total assets are now $625.4 billion.
Oxfam also calculated that German billionaires benefit above average from inheritances. While 36 percent of billionaires’ wealth worldwide comes from inheritance, in this country the figure is as high as 71 percent.
“In Germany too, super-wealth is growing unstoppably,” warns Oxfam. At the same time, poverty has increased significantly in recent years and many people cannot maintain their usual standard of living. “This extreme inequality is largely caused by an unfair tax policy,” explained Oxfam speaker Manuel Schmitt. “In this country, super-rich people often pay less taxes and fees than middle-class families.”
The next federal government must therefore decide to tax large assets, demands Oxfam. The SPD and the Greens, among others, are proposing this in their programs for the federal election in February. “Many problems could be solved with very low tax rates on the assets of the ultra-rich,” said Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) of the Funke media group.
Warning about Elon Musk’s political power
Oxfam is also concerned that the economic power of billionaires is clearly reflected in political power. Inequality has consequences for democracy, warned Altinisik. “Because wealth goes hand in hand with political power. That’s what we’re seeing today at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump: a billionaire president supported by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.”
“Incompatible with democratic principles”
According to a study by the non-profit initiative LobbyControl, the large US tech companies in particular have a broad lobby network in Europe to enforce their interests. With 33 million euros, Google (Alphabet C (ex Google)), Amazon, Meta (Meta Platforms (ex Facebook)), Microsoft and Apple lead the list of companies in terms of lobbying expenditure in Europe. “This immense lobbying power, coupled with great market and monopoly power, and the resulting growing influence on politics are incompatible with democratic principles,” says the study./tam/DP/nas
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