Will we soon have our first trillionaire? Billionaires' wealth is growing faster and faster
The world could soon have its first dollar trillionaire. Rich people like Elon Musk are gaining an alarming amount of political power, says Oxfam. Debate material for the World Economic Forum in Davos.
20.01.2025, 09:18
dpa
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- The wealth of the world's super-rich is growing ever faster
- The Oxfam report is based on data from various sources.
- In its evaluation, the emergency aid and development organization comes to the conclusion that the world could already have five dollar trillionaires within a decade.
The wealth of the world's super-rich is growing ever faster. This is according to a report published by the development organization Oxfam ahead of the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos. According to the report, there are now 2,769 billionaires worldwide - 204 new ones were added last year alone. At the same time, the number of people living below the World Bank's extended poverty line is stagnating and the number of hungry people is rising.
The Oxfam report is based on data from various sources. For example, Oxfam combined Forbes estimates on the wealth of billionaires with data from the World Bank and the UBS World Wealth Report.
Will we soon have our first trillionaire?
In its analysis, the emergency aid and development organization comes to the conclusion that the world could already have five dollar trillionaires within a decade. Last year, the wealth of billionaires grew three times faster than in the previous year. It rose from 13 to 15 trillion US dollars.
According to the report, the wealth of a billionaire increased by an average of two million US dollars per day. The richest ten billionaires even became an average of 100 million US dollars richer per day. Even if they lost 99 percent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires, Oxfam explained.
"The increase in wealth of the super-rich is boundless, while there is hardly any progress in the fight against poverty and Germany, for example, is even cutting support for low-income countries," criticized Serap Altinisik, Managing Director of Oxfam Germany.
Many billionaires in Germany thanks to inheritance
According to the report, Germany has the fourth most billionaires in the world. Their number rose by nine to 130 last year and their total wealth now stands at 625.4 billion US dollars.
Oxfam also calculated that German billionaires benefit more than average from inheritances. While 36 percent of billionaires' wealth worldwide comes from inheritances, the figure in Germany is as high as 71 percent.
"In Germany, too, the super-rich are growing unstoppably," warns Oxfam. At the same time, poverty has risen sharply in recent years and many people are unable to maintain their accustomed standard of living. "This extreme inequality is largely due to unfair tax policies," explained Oxfam spokesperson Manuel Schmitt. "In this country, the super-rich often pay less taxes and duties than middle-class families."
The next German government must therefore decide to tax large fortunes, Oxfam demands. The SPD and the Greens, among others, are proposing this in their programs for the federal elections in February. "Even with very low tax rates on the assets of the ultra-rich, many problems could be solved," Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) told the Funke Mediengruppe.
Warning about Elon Musk's political power
Oxfam is also concerned that the economic power of billionaires is also clearly reflected in political power. Inequality has consequences for democracy, warned Altinisik. "Because wealth goes hand in hand with political power. We can see this today with the inauguration of US President Donald Trump: a billionaire president supported by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk."
