Summary

Oxfam’s 2024 inequality report revealed a record $2 trillion increase in billionaire wealth, reaching $15 trillion, while global poverty rates remain stagnant.

The top 1% own 45% of all wealth, and 44% of people live on less than $6.85 daily.

Oxfam predicts five trillionaires within a decade, citing inheritance and cronyism as key wealth drivers. Elon Musk may become the first trillionaire by 2027.

Oxfam calls for tax reform, monopoly regulation, and income redistribution to address inequality.

Critics warn unchecked wealth concentration threatens democracy and economic fairness.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    3 hours ago

    When money is used in society as security for basic rights like a home, food and clean water, healthcare, political representation in government, then people hoarding wealth at the detriment of others are responsible and shouldn’t be surprised when those same people they oppress become violent.

  • eran_morad@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    3 hours ago

    I mean, there is a way to cure billionaires and prevent trillionaires. Several cures, actually, some of which are likely more palatable than others.

  • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    91
    ·
    6 hours ago

    These are direct results of the government’s failure to govern. The whole purpose of government is to regulate.

    Billionaire wealth should have immediately been taxed at the highest historical levels. Now we’re past the tipping point and have to simply endure living in an empire as it crumbles around us, while masses of rubes cheer their oppressors.

    • italics2@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 hours ago

      ‘Now we’re past the tipping point and have to simply endure living in an empire as it crumbles around us, while masses of rubes cheer their oppressors.’ - I can still vote and will do everything in my power to tax the s**t out of those billionairs. So help me the flying spaghetti monster.

  • crystalmerchant@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    4 hours ago

    No shit, fuckin obviously. This is how money works. The point is not the number it is the proportion (though obv they’re related)

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    Every developed nation should tax these motherfuckers’ entire assets at 99%. If they want to flee with all of their money to Honduras or Haiti or something, let them enjoy that paradise.

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      6 hours ago

      That assumes national borders mean anything to this class. They travel by private plane and go directly from the tarmac to the car. They don’t even need passports.

    • Sineljora
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 hours ago

      They couldn’t flee with everything, most of their assets are things we pay to use every day.

      • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 hours ago

        We lost more valuable stuff leaving them in charge: manufacturing capacity.

        Capital flight is perfect, they can’t take the means of production with them. It’s an empty threat.

        They’ve taken more away just being allowed to stay here. Let them flee, just means less time needed sharpening the guillotine blades when we’re fed up.

    • gnutrino@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      8 hours ago

      I mean, the issue is getting all nations to agree to that and making any agreement binding because otherwise the nation that decides to tax them at 98% gets all of the tax revenue…

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        5 hours ago

        98% of… what? Billionaires don’t get a paycheck like working people. They’re already sitting on all that wealth! If they spend money, it’s buying something once like a football team or Twitter and waiting until the value goes up before selling it. Same thing with stocks. And those realized gains are taxed lower than payroll taxes. They even take out unneeded loans like Trump just to avoid paying taxes! There’s a reason people say the rich pay less taxes than us…

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        8 hours ago

        I’d be fine with just taking them out of the entire system. Like I said, let them live in a place like Haiti if they want to be rich and keep them out of the rest of our lives. Let them build themselves a Dracula castle in Port-au-Prince.

        • gnutrino@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          6 hours ago

          They’re not going to go to Haiti though, they’re going to go to Monaco or Switzerland or Ireland or The Netherlands. That’s my point, for this to work all of the “developed” nations need to agree despite having a massive financial incentive not to.

            • gnutrino@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              5 hours ago

              Because, as I said, if they instead tax 98% of their wealth then all the billionaires will move there and they’ll get 98% of a lot more while everyone else gets 99% of nothing. Until a country works out they could get 97% of all that wealth to themselves and so on and so forth until you get down to the sort of tax levels we actually see. It’s just basic game theory in the end.

              • krashmo@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                5 hours ago

                Billionaires aren’t going to move to those other countries. The whole point of their lives is to flex their wealth where the other rich people are. If they did decide to leave the US for some reason then tax the shit out of any stock trades they make on the NYSE. Hike their corporate tax rate on any transaction with US citizens. Freeze their assets if they don’t pay what they owe. There are lots of ways to do this we’re just too chicken shit to go down that road.

                • skulblaka
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  3 hours ago

                  They don’t need to move there, they just need to base their business there.

                  As a smaller example that is happening today, Delaware is a corporate tax haven state in the US. Over 2 million business entities are registered in Delaware including more than half of all publicly traded American companies and almost 70% of Fortune 500 companies. If you go to Delaware you will see maybe 20% of those have an office location in the state.

                  Delaware will never change this because if they do, every corporation immediately pulls out of the state, sets up a new ghost office in Texas and then continues business as usual.

                  This is the same dynamic on a larger scale and is subject to the same problems. It requires cooperation from many entities who are not well aligned to cooperate with each other, and it also requires regulations with teeth, and the regulators are also not well aligned to cooperate because they share in the profit.

    • brlemworld@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Even if every single person stopped using them. They would still be billionaires, and still be making money by other means.

    • blackberry@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 hours ago

      only way I see an option to not is to live similar to Amish lifestyles in the US, but even then, I assume AWS, Meta and Alphabet can make some money off their existence through satellites and IP cameras

      I don’t disagree with you and not arguing not to be aware of individual actions. it just seems the situation is more dire than just not giving them our money or data

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Unfortunately I don’t have a viable alternative for some goods from Amazon without a good price increase because local sellers up the price on top of the import fees.

      On the bright side, I don’t shop there often and it’s mostly limited to electronics.