A new report from Oxfam describes a “movement toward a global oligarchy” that allows a few uber-wealthy individuals to shape global affairs for their own benefit.
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As more and more billionaires are running the world’s largest corporations, the wealth gap has reached breathtaking proportions, according to the anti-poverty organization Oxfam. The richest 1 percent of the global population now have accumulated as much wealth as the bottom 95 percent combined, i.e., nearly 8 billion people.
In addition, there is also a pronounced difference between the Global North and the countries of the Global South, which are home to four-fifths of the world’s population but only own 31 percent of its wealth.
And with the ultra-rich increasingly dominating major corporations, this is a development that will likely not be reversed any time soon.
Oxfam’s release of a report on the wealth gap and the influence of billionaires on major corporations coincides with this year’s UN High-Level General Debate.
“The shadow of global oligarchy hangs over this year’s UN General Assembly,” said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International’s Executive Director. “The ultra-wealthy and the mega-corporations they control are shaping global rules to serve their interests at the expense of people everywhere.”
Oxfam notes that one-third of the world’s largest corporations, which have a combined worth of $13.3 trillion, are either run by a billionaire or have a billionaire as the principal shareholder.
“The iconic UN podium is increasingly feeling diminished in a world in which billionaires are calling the shots,” Behar stated.
Oxfam’s report describes a “movement toward a global oligarchy” that allows a few uber-wealthy individuals (either on their own or through companies they control) to shape global affairs in a way that benefits them while leaving everybody else further behind.
And wealth not only trickles pours up when it comes to individuals but also in the case of financial assets.
According to Oxfam, the three largest US asset managers (BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard) control $20 trillion in assets, which means about one-fifth of all investable assets in the world.
“While we often hear about great power rivalries undermining multilateralism, it is clear that extreme inequality is playing a massive role,” Behar said. “In recent years the ultra-wealthy and powerful corporations have used their vast influence to undermine efforts to solve major global problems such as tackling tax dodging, making Covid-19 vaccines available to the world and canceling the albatross of sovereign debt.”
The organization offered some examples of how this dynamic plays out in real life and with real consequences.
In one of them, Oxfam describes how major pharmaceutical companies resisted efforts to break up their monopolies over COVID-19 technologies, which would have boosted supplies and helped more people in poor countries survive the pandemic.
But that is not profitable.
As a result, the group believes that 1.3 million people died who would be alive if vaccines had been distributed more equitably.
Obviously, this move toward greed and catering to the richest people in the world is nothing new. However, with the very same oligarchs increasingly influencing global affairs, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that anybody will, or even can, do anything about it.
