News - Oxfam: The world's richest 1% increase their wealth by total of $42 trillion

The richest 1 percent have amassed $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade, according to new analysis by Oxfam Thursday ahead of the third meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Oxfam informed. Despite this windfall, taxes on the rich have plummeted to "historic lows," Oxfam said, warning of "obscene levels" of inequality with the rest of the world "left to scrap for crumbs." Oxfam called the issue "the first real litmus test for G20 governments," calling on them to impose an annual net wealth tax of at least eight percent on the "extreme wealth" of the super-rich. "Momentum to increase taxes on the super-rich is undeniable," said Oxfam International’s Head of Inequality Policy, Max Lawson. "Do they have the political will to strike a global standard that puts the needs of the many before the greed of an elite few?" Oxfam notes that the figure of $42 trillion is nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50 percent of the world’s population. Despite this, billionaires around the world "have been paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5 percent of their wealth."