Tax U.S. Billionaires Whose Wealth Rose By 33% During Pandemic: Oxfam

Oxfam America has reiterated its call to tax the ultrarich after its analysis showed that US billionaires boosted their wealth by 33.3% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and by nearly 90% over the past decade, Brett Wilkins and the NGO Common Dreams reported for AlterNet.

Photo Insert: "US billionaires are almost a third richer (over a trillion dollars, in real terms) than they were at the onset of the pandemic in 2020," while overall US billionaire wealth has soared 86% since 2013.

"Wealth inequality in the US is more extreme and dangerous than income inequality; and we need to change our approach, so we effectively tax wealth as well as income," the charity said in an introduction to the report, “Tax Wealth, Tackle Inequality.”

Based on Forbes data, the report found that "US billionaires are almost a third richer (over a trillion dollars, in real terms) than they were at the onset of the pandemic in 2020," while overall US billionaire wealth has soared 86% since 2013.

The number of U.S. billionaires—of which there are now more than 700—is also nearly 60% higher than it was a decade ago, according to the analysis. As the report notes: "At the same time, our country has a ‘permanent underclass’ of working families who are denied their economic rights, trapped in poverty, and unable to accumulate wealth no matter how hard they work. Oxfam data show that almost a third of the US labor force earns less than $15 an hour; half of all working women of color earn less than $15.14.”

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