Wealthy People Working for Justice? Michael Gast’s Map of an Unprecedented Movement
Exploring the burgeoning movement to organize the rich for our common good.
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As over 2.8 million people have died globally from Covid-19 in the past year, the wealth of the world’s billionaires has surged.
The planet’s 2,365 billionaires have seen their wealth increase $4 trillion, or 54 percent, during the pandemic year. Their combined wealth rose from $8.04 trillion to $12.39 trillion between March 18, 2020 and March 18, 2021.
Thirteen billionaires saw their wealth increase over 500 percent (see the “500 Percent Club” below). Many of them are connected to companies that benefited enormously from the conditions of the pandemic, including having their competition shut down or diminished.
There are 270 new billionaires on this year’s global list, while 91 billionaires fell off the list.
The analysis was conducted for the Patriotic Millionaires (and their affiliated UK Millionaires) and Millionaires for Humanity by the Institute for Policy Studies –Program on Inequality, drawing on research from Forbes, Bloomberg, and Wealth-X.
At the global level, the wealthiest 20 billionaires have a combined $1.83 trillion in wealth –with an increase of $742 billion, or 68 percent, over the pandemic year. In comparison, the 2019 GDP of Spain was US $1.3 trillion.
While billionaires were getting richer, the pandemic caused the global economy to shrink by 3.5 percent in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund. COVID-19 has been an accelerant on global inequality, with acute adverse impacts on women, youth, the poor, the informally employed, and those who work in contact-intensive sectors.
The Need for Wealth Taxation
If global billionaires had paid an annual wealth tax in 2020, modelled on the “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” levy proposed by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, they would have paid an estimated $345 billion in wealth taxes. Based on the current expectations of wealth growth, a small wealth tax such as this would raise $4.14 trillion over the next decade. Of course, there is no institutional body to levy such a global wealth tax and this is for illustrative purposes.
The “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” would levy an annual 2 percent wealth tax on assets over $50 million –and a 3 percent tax on assets over $1 billion. Our estimates track this law by exempting wealth under $50 million and tax assets between $50 million and $1 billion at a 2 percent rate.
The annual revenue from this wealth tax would be more than twice the estimated $141.2 billion cost of delivering COVID-19 vaccines to every person on the planet, according to estimates from Oxfam.
The U.S. accounts for less than one-third of billionaire wealth on the global list. In the US alone, if this tax was applied to US billionaires on the Forbes Billionaires List, this would generate $120 billion a year, or $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
Wealth in the United Kingdom:
In the UK, between March 2020 and 2021, the 54 UK billionaires saw their wealth increase £40 billion (US $54.9 billion), a gain of 36 percent. Their combined wealth increased from £112.3 billion (US $154 billion) to £152.36 billion (US $208.9 billion).
In the same year the UK economy shrank by a record 9.9 percent and the number of people on Universal Credit – a welfare payment that supports people out-of-work or on a low income – increased by 98% to 6 million people.
In December 2020, the UK Wealth Tax Commission recommended that a one-off wealth tax in the UK, of 1 percent over 5 years, could generate £260 billion if applied to individuals with wealth over half a million pounds. If the 54 billionaires in the UK paid a one-time 5 percent wealth tax, exempting £500,000, it would raise an estimated US $8.6 billion, or £6.28 billion.
Pandemic Wealth Gainers: The 500 Percent Club
Fourteen global billionaires have seen their wealth increase more than 500 percent over the pandemic. Here they are, with a summary of their percent gain and amount of wealth increased over past year.
View the report HERE and the complete digital worksheet on Global Billionaires HERE.
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