In 2023, the world’s billionaires were worth a collective $12.7 trillion dollars. For a sense of scale, that’s a value roughly half of the 2023 US GDP, which was $23.4 trillion. As Oxfam reports, from 2020 to 2022, the planet’s top 1 percenters took in nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world combined. The organization also found that the average billionaire manages to pay a lower tax rate than the workers from whom they derive their wealth.

The wealth of the ultrarich contrasts sharply with people worldwide struggling to make ends meet. People are grappling with declining purchasing power and general immiseration, pushing them to the brink. This is evident in the United States and Canada, where housing crises and high staple prices have made day-to-day survival an uphill battle. Interest rates remain high, and the threat of a recession hangs over the heads of workers.