LONDON – For Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Elon Musk of Tesla, the pandemic has been good for business.
The two billionaires, like many of the richest people in the world, have become even richer since the coronavirus attacked, according to a report released Monday by the international humanitarian group Oxfam.
His experience contrasted sharply with that of the less fortunate in the world, who have gone through difficult times and whose recovery from the pandemic may take more than a decade, according to the report entitled “The inequality virus”.
According to Oxfam, the 10 richest billionaires in the world – including Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and the CEO of luxury group LVMH Bernard Arnault – collectively saw their wealth grow by $ 540 billion over this period. Oxfam based its analysis of the richest people on the Forbes Billionaires List.
According to Oxfam, his increase in wealth would be more than enough to pay for a vaccine against Covid-19 for everyone, which the organization estimated at $ 141.2 billion.
Only three of the world’s richest 50 billionaires have seen their fortunes shrink, the report added.
“I remember the financial crisis and I was surprised at how quickly the billionaires’ fortunes recovered,” said Max Lawson, Oxfam’s head of inequality policy and one of the report’s authors. “So it took four to five years. But that loses its importance for the coronavirus because they recovered in just nine months. None of us expected this. “
The study was released on the opening day of the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of world, civic and business leaders, which takes place online this week, rather than in Davos, Switzerland. The conference will look at how the pandemic has reshaped society and the policies needed for the future.
Almost every country in the world is likely to see an increase in inequality due to the pandemic, for the first time since records began, according to the report.
He also noted how the pandemic has unevenly affected people’s health outcomes. For example, in the U.S., about 22,000 blacks and Hispanics would still be alive in December 2020 if the death rates for Covid-19 were the same as for whites.
Covid-19 is not the only one in how it affected different populations, said Melissa Leach, director of the UK-based research organization, the Institute of Development Studies.
“Epidemics are always mirrors for society, and what this has revealed is a highly unequal world,” she said.
“We are seeing an increase in wealth among the few, an increase in poverty and differences between rich and poor. And what we have learned over many decades is that the gaps themselves are also important because they have indirect effects not only for the poor, but also for the functioning of democracies and the development of economic policies, ”he added.
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The report calls on governments to intervene to remedy the growing gaps in inequality and recommends taxes on the wealthy, increased public spending on health, free universal access to quality health care and permanent “social protection” for the poorest in society.
“Inequalities make it more difficult to deliver things that any American would care about,” said Leach. “It is more difficult to have a stable society, a healthy society, a safe society, a peaceful society and to have a functioning democracy.”