In the last two years, the richest 1% of the world accumulated almost twice the wealth obtained by the rest of the planet. The data appears in the annual report of the non-governmental organization Oxfam on inequality, traditionally released on the occasion of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland. This issue proposes an increase in taxation of the super-rich as a way to raise funds that would be enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.
“In this year, specifically, one of the highlights of this report is that for the first time in 25 years, we have, at the same time, a large increase in extreme wealth and extreme poverty”, points out Jefferson Nascimento, Coordinator of Social and Economic Justice at Oxfam Brazil. The organization therefore advocates “a broad and systemic increase in taxation of the super-rich to recover part of the gains obtained through excessive profits during the crisis that started in 2020, due to the pandemic”.
The proposal is for an annual tax of up to 5% on the wealth of the super-rich. According to Oxfam, that percentage could raise $1.7 trillion a year. Among the possible measures to be implemented with these resources would be: financing humanitarian appeals, development of a plan to end hunger on the planet in 10 years; support poorer countries that are devastated by weather events; and ensure global public health and social protection.
Nascimento points out that the issue of taxation has gained strength with the advancement of inequalities, especially in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. “We have seen several countries, including with a change of government due to the debate on tax reform, such as the case of Colombia, the topic being also discussed in Chile, the government itself [Joe] Biden talking about the need to tax the richest. It is a debate that is spreading around the world”, she evaluated.
Climate impacts as an expression of global inequality is also a highlight of the report. According to the document, “a billionaire emits 1 million times more carbon than the average person and is twice as likely as the average investor to invest in polluting industries such as fossil fuels”.
“The Davos meeting itself is the biggest transit of jets that we see on the planet at that moment, even when some of those governments are advocating for restrictions on domestic flights. And there’s the element of people who are impacted by it. Those who are mainly impacted by emissions are the poorest people who have seen more and more extreme weather events, floods, droughts”, he exemplifies.
In addition to permanently raising taxes on capital and labor income of the world’s richest 1%, Oxfam is proposing to introduce, extraordinarily, solidarity and one-off taxes on wealth and extraordinary profits to end the crisis of excess profits. Another proposal is wealth taxation, including the implementation of taxes on inheritances, property and land, as well as wealth.
