Oxfam, the collection of 21 nongovernment agencies (NGO), the goal of which is to fight poverty, issued its annual report on the gulf between the world’s wealthiest people and the poorest. The report is always released before the World Economic Forum. This year’s report, titled “Takers, Not Makers,” said the world will have five trillionaires within a decade.
Among the trends the report points out is that the wealth of billionaires rose by $2 trillion in 2024. A total of 204 billionaires were “created” over the same period.
The report also said that 3.6 billion people live below the poverty line worldwide. The measure of poverty was from World Bank yardsticks. That is 44% of all people alive last year. The richest 1% of people have 45% of global wealth.
“Takers, Not Makers” adds that, based on its research, most of the world’s wealth is created by inheritance or companies that are “monopolies.” The author concluded that “Last year Oxfam forecasted a trillionaire within a decade. If current trends continue, there will now be five trillionaires within a decade.”
It is too early to say who the five trillionaires might be. Certainly, the people who are currently among the world’s richest would-be candidates. This included Elon Musk, who already has a net worth of $449 billion, according to Bloomberg. If the value of companies in which he has ownership rises, his net worth will soar. This includes positions in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction), SpaceX, and xAI.
The other two likely candidates are the world’s second richest billionaire, Jeff Bezos who has a net worth of $245 billion. He is a founder of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). He is followed on the wealth list by Jeff Zuckerberg at $217 billion, due mostly to his ownership of Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META).
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