Despite all the economic turmoil the world witnessed last year, billionaire wealth still went up by over 16 per cent, three times faster than the average over the past five years, to a staggering $18.3 trillion. According to Oxfam’s latest report on global inequality, ‘Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power’, there are now more billionaires than ever before. The man who sits at the top of the world’s 3000 or so billionaires, Elon Musk, has become the first person in history to have wealth of over half a trillion dollars. Meanwhile, one in four people worldwide has to regularly skip meals. So is it the business and innovative genius of these billionaires that is pushing their wealth to new heights while the rest of us struggle to maintain the standard of living our parents had? Not exactly. According to Oxfam, billionaires’ financial muscle is now quickly being converted into an even more potent currency: political power. The report finds that the super-rich are securing political power to shape the rules of our economies and societies for their own gain, at the expense of people’s rights and freedoms around the world. Civil liberties and political rights are being rolled back and suppressed as countries across the globe curtail freedom of expression and meet protests with violence.
The 2025 surge in the wealth of the ultra-wealthy coincides with arguably the most pro-rich US presidential administration ever, led by a man who just so happens to be a billionaire himself. This is no mere coincidence. Oxfam estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary citizens. The same money that can buy super yachts can also buy judges, politicians, newspapers or even votes and elections themselves. And this isn’t just a US phenomenon. A World Values Survey of 66 countries found that almost half of respondents said the rich often buy elections in their countries. In Asia, the wealthiest 10.0 per cent capture 77.0 per cent of the region’s income, while over half a billion people survive on less than $4.20 a day. And while there might be few billionaires in Pakistan, this phenomenon of financial inequality translating into political inequality is hardly foreign. The country’s ‘K-shaped’ economic recovery is deepening wealth inequality.
The consequences of living in a system that increasingly operates in favour of its richest few are also getting starker. The rate of poverty reduction has stagnated at levels broadly where they were in 2019, and extreme poverty is rising again in Africa as rich countries race to slash aid budgets and dodge the climate bill that they have imposed on the Global South. As such, the ability of countries like ours to rely on the West to help with development is eroding. So how can this growing billionaire tyranny be defeated? The Oxfam report cites how philosopher Ingrid Robbins has set out a case for a legal limit on private wealth, similar to how nations set things like poverty lines and, at least ostensibly, work to ensure citizens do not fall under them. Restrictions on things like political donations might also be useful. But in a world where the ultra-rich now have the power to shape the opinions, perceptions and even emotions of the many, it remains unclear whether such a political movement is even viable.
