As millions of people around the world lost their jobs, billionaires increased their wealth
By Bindu Tg Bangalore
The Covid-19 pandemic has left thousands of Indians unemployed—perhaps fore.The Covid-19 outbreak is likely to have a long-lasting impact on world economy. Unemployment is rising at a very high peak. Poor people are in dire need of work to maintain their living. On other hand, neo rich people are making money at a very quick pace. They are becoming fatter and fatter.
Here’s some statistics to digest.
Wealth growth during the pandemic of some of the well-known US billionaires :
• Jeff Bezos – CEO, Amazon Inc : +$90.1 billion (+79.8%).
• Elon Musk – CEO, Tesla Inc : +$68.2 billion (+277.4%)
• Mark Zuckerberg – CEO, Facebook Inc : +$46.5 billion (+85.1%)
• Bill Gates – Founder, Microsoft Inc : $20.0 billion (+20.4%)
• Lin Bin – Co-founder and President of Xiaomi : +$4.7 billion (+133.6%)
• Jack Dorsey h growth during pandemic: +$7.8 billion (+298.3%)
• Net worth of the world’s 500 richest people grew about $1.8 trillion last year, according to Bloomberg. It’s a 31% increase that represents the largest annual gain in the 8 years that Bloomberg has tracked these figures.
• In December 2020, the total wealth of billionaires worldwide hit $11.95 trillion – equivalent to the recovery spending of all the G20 governments put together, according to the charity.
• The combined wealth of the world’s 10 richest men rose by $540 billion during the pandemic as per Bloomberg. This amount would be enough to prevent the world from falling into poverty because of the virus, and pay for vaccines for all.
• The report said that Mr Bezos’s worth had climbed so much between March-September 2020 that he could have given all 876,000 Amazon employees a $105,000 bonus and still have been as wealthy as he was before the pandemic.
• The world added 607 new billionaires or more than three billionaires in two days, while India added 55 new billionaires or one billionaire every week in 2020
During this period,
• Oxfam estimates that between 200 million and 500 million more people were living in poverty in 2020, reversing the decline in global poverty seen over the last two decades.
• Over 2 lakh people died in the US alone and about 50 million lost their jobs.
Wealth growth during the pandemic of the most talked about Indian billionaires :
• Mukesh Ambani – Chairman, Reliance Industries : $89 billion (+73%)
• Gautam Adani – Chairman, Adani Group : $32.2 billion (+200%). What’s to be noted is current wealth is at $67 billion in less than 8 months.
• Cyrus Poonawalla – Chairman, SII : $7.6 billion (+86.7%)
• India’s top 10 billionaires see net worth zoom by $76.3 billion in pandemic year
• Wealth of Indian billionaires rose by over a third during the COVID-19 Lockdown
• Indian billionaires increased their wealth by 35% during lockdown to $423 billion.
• Since 2009, the net worth of India’s billionaires surged 90% as on July 31, 2020
• India’s richest 1% of the population holds 42.5% of national wealth while the bottom 50% – the majority of the population, owns a mere 2.8%
• India added 40 billionaires to solidify its third place in the world with more than 1000 known billionaires.
• The cumulative value of 828 individuals on the 2020 list stood at $821 billion up from $140 billion in 2019.
On the contrary,
• India would be among the three countries along with Congo and Nigeria to have most people living in poverty due to economic reversals as a result of Covid 19. The poverty has doubled reversing the growth gained for decades.
• Number of poor people with income less than $2 (Rs 150) or less in a day in the country increased from 60 million to 134 million.
• India’s vast middle-class also shrank by 32 million – to 66 million from the pre-pandemic level of 99 million.
• The unemployment rate had also peaked to its highest in over 40 years.
• 230 million Indians pushed into poverty amid Covid-19 pandemic
• 80% of India’s informal workers lost jobs during COVID lockdown, 63% survived on two meals a day.
The difference is stark between profits for billionaires and the widespread economic misery. This compares with the world’s poorest, for whom economic recovery could take more than a decade. The billionaires’ fortunes rose due to rebounding stock markets and a rigged economy, causing rising inequality during the worst economic downturn in a century.
One need not be an academician or an expert to figure how brazen the system is. The rich get richer while the poor, poorer.
(The writer is Bangalore based software professional. Views are personal)
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