The Rich Get Richer: Top 1% Gains Huge Wealth as Others Struggle

In the last ten years, the world’s richest 1% have gotten a lot richer. They have gained $42 trillion of new wealth—34 times more money than what the poorest half of the world’s population has gained.

Now, consider this person by person to understand it even better. If you work out the average for every person in the top 1%, it gets richer by about $400,000. For people in the bottom half, they got only about $335 richer. That is less than 9 cents more per day.

World Leaders Talk About Taxing Rich People More

This week the G20 money chiefs of large nations meet in Brazil. They discuss imposing higher taxes on the rich. A lot of people observe that this could be a very excellent idea, since clearly, the gap between rich and poor has grown so wide.

The richest 1% of people keep getting more and more money, while everybody else has to fight for what is left,” said Max Lawson from a group called Oxfam. He hopes the G20 leaders will agree to make rich people pay more taxes.

The Rich Pay Less Tax Today Than They Did in the Past

It used to be that rich people had to pay more in taxes. Through the years, the taxation of rich people has drastically come down. Now, in G20 countries, less than 8 cents out of every dollar in taxes comes from taxes on wealth.

Oxfam found that the richest 1% are making 45% more money in G20 countries than they were 40 years ago. Yet the highest tax rates they pay have gone down by about one-third.

Very Little Tax Paid by Billionaires

The super-rich, or the billionaires, pay only a tiny fraction of taxes against the money they have. They pay less than half a penny in tax for every dollar of their wealth. Their money has been growing at about 7% per annum over the past 40 years.

Oxfam says billionaires have to be made to pay at least 8% of their wealth in taxes every year to stop getting richer and richer.

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Most People Think the Rich Should Pay More in Taxes

Thousands of people globally think the rich should be paying more in taxes. For example:

• 80% of people living in India
• 85% of people living in Brazil
• 69% of people residing in many African countries

Even many rich people themselves think they should pay more taxes. Around three in four millionaires say they support higher taxes on wealth in G20 countries.

Why This Matters

It causes problems in society when rich people get much richer while poor people are still poor. Many people believe it is not fair and would like to see some changes. That is the importance of these discourses concerning imposing higher taxes on the rich. If rich people pay more in taxes, then that money can be used to help everyone else.