Five people will become billionaires in the next decade, according to a new report

• The global wealth of billionaires has risen at an unprecedented rate.
• New research by Oxfam warns of an imminent shift into ‘billionaire’ status for a select few.
• Critics say this rise in extreme wealth exacerbates inequality and fuels calls for stronger taxes and regulation.

Billionaire wealth will rise by $2 trillion in 2024, three times its pace from the previous year, according to an anti-poverty charity. Oxfam International. The total holdings of the world’s billionaires – about $15 trillion – are now equal to the world’s gross domestic product complete Eurozone. The total number of people on the billionaire list reached 2,769 last year, almost enough to fill the Sydney Opera House’s concert hall. While the wealth of billionaires has increased by $5.7 billion each day in the past year, the number of people living on less than $6.85 a day has barely changed since 1990.

Oxfam’s latest report Takers, not makers, It suggests that at least four new billionaires will be “registered” every week in 2024. The research also predicts that at least five trillion will likely be created over the next ten years, which is in stark contrast to the organisation’s previous guess that There will only be one created during the same period. This rapid accumulation of wealth was published as world leaders – including new US President Donald Trump (supported by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk) – gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum.

Trillionaires soon

With five potential trillionaires on the horizon, fears are growing among many that the world is stumbling toward a “new aristocracy” fueled by inheritances, monopolies, and/or “patronage relationships.” While some are thrilled by the investment and innovation that often tracks – or at least, is promoted as tracking – high-net-worth individuals, others point to increasingly entrenched inequality, with Oxfam noting that more than half of the wealth of billionaires It comes from unearned. Advantage rather than productive work.

Musk’s newfound warm relationship with Donald Trump is seen by many as the latest embodiment of this dynamic, as billionaires make strides toward seizing policy-making platforms. Critics argue that the wealthy are increasingly able to direct legislation and regulation in ways that permanently multiply their financial gains. Oxfam and similar organizations are calling for mechanisms such as raising taxes on the super-rich, capping CEO pay, and breaking up monopolies through the courts.

Calls for a more just system

While the Trump administration promises an economic revival – right – anti-poverty activists continue to warn against further concentration of power in the hands of a privileged few. Following former President Joe Biden’s assertion that billionaires are “starting to pay their fair share”, Oxfam appealed to governments around the world to actively exercise monopolies and promote a fairer economic environment.

Despite these concerns, Davos began as usual, with thousands of business and government figures discussing everything from new AI-powered technology to modern monetary policy. It remains to be seen whether world leaders will act on Oxfam’s warnings about the swelling wealth of a small elite… and this writer unfortunately suspects that this warning may fall on deaf ears.