Oxfam: Billionaires' wealth grew three times faster to US $2 trillion in 2024, report claims

In its report titled 'Takers, Not Makers', Oxfam said the richest 1% of the Global North would earn US$30 million per hour from the Global South through financial systems in 2023. It further said that 60% of billionaires' wealth is now derived from inheritance, monopoly power, or crony relationships, indicating that "billionaires' enormous wealth is largely not legitimate."

Oxfam called on governments around the world to tax the richest to combat inequality, end excessive wealth, and end the new aristocracy. It also wanted the former colonial masters to pay reparations for past wrongs. The wealth of billionaires in 2024 increased by an average of $5.7 billion per day while their number grew to 2,769 from 2,565 in 2023.

According to Oxfam, during the pandemic, the wealth of the world's ten richest people has grown by $1 million a day, or about $100 million a day on average. It would take them having 99% of their wealth wiped out overnight for them to cease to be billionaires.

Oxfam, whose annual inequality report is among the most hotly debated items on the annual World Economic Forum, said the myth that billionaires' wealth is largely created through hard work and entrepreneurial skills is quite the opposite. Indeed, 60% of billionaires' wealth is a result of inheritance, monopoly power, or crony ties.