Planet of the billionaires - Making the most of a pandemic

THE WORLD'S five hundred wealthiest people have added a total of 852 billion to their collective fortunes. This is just part of a broader trend. As noted by Oxfam in their Survival of the Richest report, billionaires have doubled their wealth over the last ten years.

Who pays?

Since 2020 and through the pandemic, they have increased their fortunes by €2.7 billion daily. An important factor behind this increase was the massive increase in public expenditure, which kept the world economy afloat—of course, the super-rich and big business will not be taxed to pay for this. In Ireland, our nine billionaires have increased their wealth by 16 billion since 2020.

Work doesn’t pay.

At the same time, working-class real wages continue to drop. According to the International Labour Organization, a combination of stagnant wages and high inflation rates last year led to a decrease in real wages. With a decrease of0.9% in real wages, the first time a negative wage has been recorded since the ILO first created the report in 2008.

Real wage cuts

Last year, workers in the south effectively lost 4% of their wages, equivalent to working 8.3 days for

The government attempts to make one-off payments to offset this, doing little to alleviate this change, with inflation remaining at similar levels as last year.

Increasing misery

Of course, such a change is not affecting people equally. Since 2020, it has been estimated, according to the world bank, 163 million more live in poverty, with ninety-seven million more people living in extreme poverty. This impact also has a gender basis, with some projections by the UN that up to twenty million more women live in extreme poverty than men.

A lack of gratitude

While this increase in billionaires' wealth has happened, the Tech industry, where most have gained their fortunes, has faced massive staff layoffs, 216,328 worldwide, according to the latest numbers. This leads to a loss of more than 2,000 jobs in the south due to cuts at Meta, Indeed and Dell. The excuse given by such companies is that this is a cost-cutting exercise, despite big tech companies reporting $242 billion in profits last year.

More in fewer hands.

These facts and figures point to a simple fact the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. Under capitalism, this is an inevitable result as the 1% use their