The billionaires list got longer, and they got richer in 2020
Thanks in the main to skyrocketing stock prices, the number of billionaires on the Forbes annual list of the world's wealthiest hit 2,755—660 more than in the 2020 list. India reinforced the trend with 140 new billionaires
Writing about billionaires at a time when India’s daily Covid-19 caseload has breached the 200,000 mark—in mid-April—may seem surreal, even perverse. It’s that time of the year, all over again, when those rendered jobless virtually overnight, thanks to cities shutting down, begin the long journey to their homes in the hinterland. It’s also that time when the scramble for beds, ventilators, oxygen and medication is getting graver by the day.
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But that’s the reality of the Covid-19 era. The world’s billionaires’ list just got longer. And they’ve got richer, too. Thanks in the main to skyrocketing stock prices, the number of billionaires on the Forbes annual list of the world’s wealthiest hit 2,755—660 more than in the 2020 list. The collective net worth of this elite bunch was up to $13.1 trillion, higher by $5.1 trillion from a year ago. India reinforced the trend, with the rise of 140 billionaires, up from 102 last year, making it the country with the third-highest number of super-Richie Riches; their collective wealth almost doubled to just under $600 billion.
In theory, this is capitalism working just fine. Remember, after all, that even if it is the individual’s wealth that tends to be tom-tommed, it’s a less significant manifestation of the organisation he or she has built with the help of hundreds of thousands in the workforce. The founders are in most cases entrepreneurs who took a risk to build a venture that today can employ so many. These founders—of traditional and new age companies—are pulling out all stops to create assets, jobs and industries, which in turn does its bit for the economy; and that economic growth will trickle down to the lower layers of the pyramid.
Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. But, in Covid-19 times, the paradox being pointed to by sections of economists and analysts is that billionaire fortunes may be back to pre-pandemic highs—and even higher—in less than a year, but it’s going to take the world’s poorest much longer to turn around their lives. In the US, working families are looking to President Joe Biden to usher in a system that ensures the rich and corporations pay higher taxes, which will go into improving public services and building an economy that works for all Americans.
