The super-wealthy won big as COVID-19 spread - here's how they can help alleviate the economic peril faced by most

More than 16 million cases of COVID-19 were confirmed between April and July of this year, there were nearly 630,000 related deaths, and the world’s richest people got about $2 trillion richer.

Global billionaires managed to increase their collective wealth by 27.5% during the four-month period, to $10.2 trillion, according to a recent report.

News of the windfall for this elite club of roughly 2,000 members comes alongside indications of trillions of dollars in lost wages, and warnings that hundreds of millions of people will be pushed into extreme poverty this year as a result of the pandemic.

That dissonance has raised concerns about so much money finding its way into the portfolios of the already wealthy rather than funding services that could help the vulnerable during a crisis. It also points to broader potential implications for our ability to reset the global economy in a more just and sustainable way.

The report on how billionaires have fared identified 209 who publicly committed to donating a total of $7.2 billion to COVID-19 relief efforts between March and June. The report suggests billionaires have been giving in large amounts reminiscent of the early 20^th century – a period of relatively high income inequality that spurred the establishment of federal income tax in the US. Some argue it would now be more constructive to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to fund pandemic relief efforts, rather than rely on donations.

Much of the financial gain for billionaires resulted from approaching the initial impact of the pandemic on asset prices – including sharp stock market declines – as an investment opportunity. As assets like stocks suddenly got much cheaper, the wealthy were able to accumulate significantly more of them before they regained value.

Most people do not have the same type of access to equity markets as the wealthy, who employ bankers and advisers to manage their money – if they have any access at all. In the US, for example, while the wealthiest 1% of the population owned $14 trillion in stocks as of the second quarter of this year, the bottom 50% owned just $160 billion in stocks.

Disparities like this have spurred calls from experts for a progressive wealth tax to fund a pandemic recovery. Because the wealthy have been more comfortably insulated from the crisis than others, the argument goes, it makes sense to tap into their considerable assets when they’re needed most.

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