Oxfam America Renews Call to Tax Ultra-Rich Amid Growing Wealth Inequality: Report

As the deadline for filing US federal income tax returns approaches, Oxfam America has renewed calls to tax the ultra-rich, including releasing analysis that shows a growing number of US billionaires have seen their wealth grow by almost a third since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and almost 90% over the past decade.

“Wealth inequality in the United States is more extreme and more dangerous than income inequality. We need to change our approach to effectively tax both wealth and income,” Common Dreams said, quoting the introduction of the report “Taxing Wealth, Addressing Inequality” published last week by Oxfam.

Drawing on data from Forbes, the report found that America’s billionaires are now “almost a third richer (more than $1 trillion in real terms) than they were at the start of the pandemic. in 2020”, while the overall wealth of American billionaires had increased by 86% since 2013.

The total number of US billionaires, now over 700, is also nearly 60% higher than a decade ago, according to Oxfam.

At the same time, the United States now has a “permanent underclass” of disenfranchised workers, trapped in poverty and unable to accumulate wealth no matter how hard they try. Oxfam data shows that nearly a third of the American workforce earns less than US$15 an hour, and half of all working women of color earn less than US$15.14. dollars an hour.

“The racial wealth gap has actually been widening since the 1980s, and is now close to where it was in 1950. An average black American household currently has only about 12% of the wealth of an average white household,” the report added.