Unlike global food prices, the number of billionaires just started to fall…
Whilst the number of new billionaires has fallen by 6 since last year, sales of private jets are likely to reach their highest ever level this year, according to reports
It’s that time of year again… when the Sunday Times publishes the annual list of the UK’s most wealthy. You’ll spot some familiar names – Rishi Sunak, for one, alongside the King, The Weston Family (who own Primark), and Mike Ashley.
The 2023 Rich List features 171 billionaires, a decrease of 6 from 2022. But don’t get too excited - it’s not exactly a radical redistribution of wealth. The top 250 entries in this year’s Rich List hold more wealth than the top 1,000 entries in 2017.
Whilst headlines today proclaim the ‘dramatic loss in income’ for the billionaires of the Rich List, their combined wealth has risen by £30.7 billion to £683.9 billion, despite a global cost of living crisis fuelled by conflict in Ukraine and the ongoing climate crisis.
Losing £500,000 per day might sound dramatic, but it probably stings less when, like Rishi Sunak and family, you still have over £730,000,000 to be getting on with.
This year’s Rich List list of 350 individuals and families hold combined wealth of £796.459 billion — a sum larger than the GDP of Switzerland.
In 2022 Billionaire wealth surged across the entire world – with billionaire’s fortunes globally increasing by $2.7 billion a day.
Against a backdrop of global increases in food prices and soaring energy prices, Oxfam’s analysis of 95 food and energy corporations found that they made $306 billion in windfall profits in 2022. 84% of this was paid to their shareholders, making the already rich, even richer.
Right now, at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages.
Inequality is on the rise – with the gaps between the wealthiest and the very poorest widening every year.
Last year 258 million people in 58 countries faced acute food shortages and require urgent food aid – rising from 193 million in 2021, a number which has risen for the fourth year in a row. One in ten people across the world are going hungry, with women and girls often eating ‘least and last’.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the situation a “stinging indictment of humanity’s failure” to implement UN goals to end world hunger. Rising poverty, deepening inequalities, rampant underdevelopment, the climate crisis and natural disasters also contribute to food insecurity,” Guterres said.
“We are facing many problems due to this price hike. We are suffering a lot. We cannot buy the required quantity of food and other essentials that we use to buy. From February to April our tea garden needs to be irrigated every 15 days. Due to the increase in electricity and fuel prices, we now have to irrigate the land for one hour where we used to irrigate the land for three hours. Because of that our yield has decreased a lot.”
- Aysha Begum, Tea Farmer, Bangladesh
Massive decreases in international development budgets are exacerbating the problem – the UK alone cut 21% of their overseas development budget between 2020 and 2021.
Meanwhile, the profits from trade go not to those who make and deliver the food, goods and services we rely on – but into the hands of a tiny number of extraordinarily wealthy individuals. We want to change this and see power and money back in the hands of the people who are doing trade that benefits people and the planet. In February we set up the Producer Fund to do just this - to invest in producers, workers and artisans who prove it is possible for trade to be ethical and benefit all.