THE share of global wealth of the richest people in the world soared at a record pace during the coronavirus pandemic, revealed a report on inequality today.

The World Inequality Report said since 1995, the slice held by billionaires has risen from 1% to 3%.

“This increase was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, last year marked the steepest increase in the share of wealth of global billionaires on record,” said the document.

It said the club of the richest 1% has taken more than a third of all additional wealth accumulated since 1995, while the bottom 50% captured just 2%.

“After more than 18 months of Covid-19, the world is even more polarised,” said Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics.

“While the wealth of billionaires rose by more than €3.6 trillion (RM17.1 trillion), 100 million more people joined the ranks of extreme poverty,” he said, noting that extreme poverty had been falling for 25 years.

A real-time ranking by Forbes magazine shows that the top 10 richest people each have a net worth exceeding US$100 billion (RM423 billion), with Tesla boss Elon Musk on top with US$264.5 billion.

Only one of the men is not American – LVMH luxury group chief Bernard Arnault – and all but two are tech industry leaders, whose fortunes have been turbocharged by soaring company share prices.

The 228-page report, whose contributors include French economist Thomas Piketty, calls for a “modest progressive wealth tax on global multimillionaires” to redistribute wealth, along with measures to prevent tax evasion.

“Given the large volume of wealth concentration, modest progressive taxes can generate significant revenues for governments.” – AFP, December 7, 2021.