The World's 10 Richest Men Have Made So Much Money During the Pandemic That a One-Time 99% Tax on Their Gains Could Pay for All Covid-19 Vaccine Production and More: Oxfam Oxfam issued a new report on inequality in which it advocated more taxation for the rich.

By Huileng Tan

This story originally appeared on Business Insider

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin | Getty Images

The wealth of the 10 richest men in the world has grown so much during the coronavirus pandemic that even a one-time 99% tax on their gains would be able to pay for the production of all the COVID-19 vaccines the world needs and more, according to the charity Oxfam.

"Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic. Central banks pumped trillions of dollars into financial markets to save the economy, yet much of that has ended up lining the pockets of billionaires riding a stock market boom," Oxfam International's executive director, Gabriela Bucher, said in a press release announcing a new report from the organization, "Inequality Kills."

Highlighting the vast wealth disparity that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oxfam noted that the wealth of the world's 10 richest men more than doubled to $1.5 trillion from $700 billion from March 2020 to November 2021. That's a rate of $15,000 a second or $1.3 billion a day, the charity said.

Oxfam used the Forbes Billionaires List, topped by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, to calculate the figures.

"Vaccines were meant to end this pandemic, yet rich governments allowed pharma billionaires and monopolies to cut off the supply to billions of people. The result is that every kind of inequality imaginable risks rising," Bucher said.

According to Oxfam's calculations, a one-time 99% windfall tax on the gains in fortunes of the 10 richest men would able be to pay for the manufacture of the world's COVID-19 vaccines. There'd also be enough to fund other public-works projects, including universal healthcare and social protection.

"All this, while still leaving these men $8 billion better off than they were before the pandemic," Oxfam noted in its report.

The charity urges governments to "claw back" gains made by billionaires.

"It has never been so important to start righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing back elites' power and extreme wealth including through taxation — getting that money back into the real economy and to save lives," Bucher said.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Celebrity Entrepreneurs

From Hollywood to Harvest — How Zooey Deschanel is on a Mission to Make Fresh Produce More Accessible

Along with her business partner and ex-husband, serial entrepreneur Jacob Pechenik, Deschanel founded Lettuce Grow. This hydroponic vertical garden system allows you to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers at home.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Business News

Elon Musk's xAI Claims Its New Grok 3 AI Is Better Than ChatGPT and DeepSeek: 'Seeing the Beginnings of Creativity'

xAI debuted the new AI on Monday, claiming it has 10 times the computational power of Grok 2.

Side Hustle

This 30-Year-Old's $6,000-a-Month Side Hustle Started Making Money 'Immediately' — But He's Not Quitting His Day Job

Derrick Mathy works in orthopedic surgical device sales and is on a mission to bring people together in real life.

Business News

'Unprecedented in Our 53-Year History': Southwest Airlines Announces Its First Mass Layoffs Ever

The airline is eliminating 15% of its corporate workforce, including many in senior leadership positions.

Business Models

How This Luxury Retail Store Builds 100-Year-Relationships with Its Customers

Brent Polacheck, owner of Polacheck's Jewelers, is proving that in an era of instant gratification, the art of generational relationship-building still drives retail success.