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Over the last two years, the wealthiest people in the world have been getting a lot richer, a lot faster than other people.
A report by Oxfam says that the top 1% of people got twice as much new wealth compared to everyone else in the last two years. The top 1% became $26 trillion richer, whereas the other 99% of people in the world only became $16 trillion richer.
Meanwhile, the number of poor people skyrocketed in 2020. 1.7 billion workers live in countries where the prices of food and housing are going up faster than salaries.
The top 1% did lose some money this past year, but they are much richer now than at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Nabil Ahmed from Oxfam says that there are three main reasons that the rich are getting richer now.
At the start of the pandemic, many countries, especially rich countries, put a lot of money into their economies to save jobs. Rich people were able to profit from that situation.
Also, many companies have been making more money in recent years, so investors earn a lot of money from the stock market.
Additionally, workers are not getting salary increases, which means more money for executives.
Oxfam says that it’s the first time in 25 years that both extreme wealth and extreme poverty have grown at the same time. To fight this problem, Oxfam wants governments to increase taxes on rich people.
Oxfam suggests new taxes to stop people from making money during global crises. They also want higher taxes on the richest 1% of people. The money from the taxes would be used to help others.
Vocabulary
- Wealthy – rich
- Report – a written description of an event; story; article; the results of a study or project
- Top 1% – people who are in the richest 1% of all people in the world
- Twice as much – double; 2X
- Wealth – a large amount of money or valuable possessions
- Trillion – 1,000,000,000,000 = one-trillion
- Whereas – compared with the fact that; although; on the other hand
- Meanwhile – at the same time as something else is happening;
- Poor – having little money and few or no possessions
- Skyrocket – to increase quickly and a lot
- Billion – 1,000,000,000 = one-billion
- Salary – the money that someone is paid for the work they do, usually paid to them on a regular basis (weekly, monthly or yearly)
- Pandemic – when a disease or sickness goes all over the country or world
- Economy – the system according to which the money, industry, and trade of a country or region are organized; the supply of money, production of goods and purchase of goods
- Profit from – make/earn money from something; to get an advantage or benefit
- Situation – condition; circumstance; state of affairs; the way it is;
- Investor – A person who puts money into a company or property and hopes to get a profit
- Earn – to get something (usually money) because you worked, sold something, or helped someone; receive
- Stock market – a market where stocks (pieces of ownership in a company) are bought and sold (New York Stock Exchange ‘Wall Street’)
- Executive – an important person at a company; someone in a high management position; director; head;
- Poverty – the condition or situation or being very poor, to live with no money
- Tax – money that a government requires people or businesses to pay
- Global crises – a serious problem that affects many countries around the world and puts many people in danger
Quiz
Discussion Questions
- How have the economic impacts of the pandemic affected the wealthy and the poor? Explain the differences.
- What solutions does Oxfam propose to fix the problem of growing wealth inequality? Do you think it would be effective?
- In your opinion, is it fair to tax different people different amounts of money? Why or why not?
Original Article
- English teachers looking for teaching ideas, check out my post on using easy news articles for lessons.
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