Billionaires, eh. Is there anyone who doesn't love them? There's the one who is secretly turning the grannies of the world into his unwilling subjects, one vaccine at a time, the one who misspelled a text and ended up naming his kid after it and the one who bought that Wu Tang album and then decided to raise the price of drugs so that loads of people died.
Well, if you love billionaires, you'll be happy to know that they made a shedload of cash in the last year, despite the collapse of society/the economy/decency. It turns out that the best way to inoculate yourself against the coronavirus isn't to have the vaccine, but instead to be filthy rich to start with.
Oxfam Ireland have released a report that coincides with the Davos Summit, an annual meeting of the global elite that usually takes place in the Swiss Alps but this year will be held online. You'd have thought they could have paid to have testing and meet somewhere and have their big beano, but I guess PR does matter at least at some level.
According to Oxfam, the nine richest dudes in Ireland (of course, they're all dudes) made €3 billion last year, enough to pay to vaccinate the whole country several times over. In fact, our entire vaccination plan is scheduled to cost just €300m.
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"Rigged economies are funnelling wealth to a rich elite who are riding out the pandemic in safety, while those on the frontline - our shop assistants, healthcare workers and factory workers - are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table, and often do not have benefits such as paid sick leave," said Oxfam Ireland's chief executive, Jim Clarken.
"We stand to witness the greatest rise in inequality since records began, with the deep divide between the rich and poor proving as deadly as the virus itself," he added.
"Rising inequality means it could take at least 14 times longer for the number of people living in poverty to return to pre-pandemic levels than it took for the fortunes of the top 1,000, mostly white male billionaires, to bounce back."
"In Ireland, the fallout of the pandemic on employment has disproportionately hit young adults as well as people in low-paid occupations, all of whom are more likely to be paying rent."
"Without significant government intervention, we are looking at a return to long-term unemployment, increasing risks of homelessness and economic insecurity for younger generations in Ireland."
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