Inequality is Growing in the Netherlands: Oxfam Novib Calls for Higher Taxation of the Wealthy

ANPOxfam director Michiel Servaes

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 01:10

Inequality is growing in the Netherlands, just like in the rest of the world. Therefore, the extremely wealthy should be taxed higher. Oxfam Novib makes this appeal to the House of Representatives in a annual report about economic inequality.

The wealth of the five richest men in the world has more than doubled since 2020. Their combined assets increased from $405 billion to $869 billion. In November last year, this involved Elon Musk (Tesla), Bernard Arnault and family (LVMH), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Larry Ellison (Oracle) and Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway). The combined wealth of all billionaires in the world also rose, by 34 percent to $3.3 trillion.

At the same time, five billion people have become poorer due to inflation, the NGO calculated. 800 million people lost almost a month’s salary. Due to the depreciation in 2022, an average Dutch person worked ‘unpaid’ for more than two weeks on balance. And while the richest 1 percent pay an average of 20 to 30 percent in taxes, the average Dutch person pays about 40 percent.

‘Without intervention, lopsided growth will become worse’

“Large companies and the super-rich in particular benefit,” says Oxfam director Michiel Servaes. “It is not without reason that ‘grayflation’ was the word of the past year. The hard figures from our report now expose this. Politicians who argue for greater social security must realize that this is only possible through a fairer distribution of prosperity. Without intervention, skewed growth will only become more crooked.”

Oxfam is publishing the report on the occasion of the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The global political and business elite are meeting there for the 54th time today.

2024-01-15 00:10:43
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