Washington DC - The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men has doubled since the pandemic began, Oxfam said in a briefing paper published Monday.

Meanwhile, "over 160 million people are projected to have been pushed into poverty," according to the briefing paper Inequality Kills, published Monday ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda.

The paper warned that widening economic, gender, and racial
inequalities as well as the inequality that exists between countries "are tearing our world apart."

"This is not by chance, but choice: 'economic violence' is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful people. This causes direct harm to us all, and
to the poorest people, women and girls, and racialized groups most," the paper's authors added.

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"It has never been so important to start righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing back elites’ power and extreme wealth including through taxation – getting that money back into the real economy and to save lives," Oxfam International’s executive director Gabriela Bucher said.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed openly both the motive of greed, and the opportunity by political and economic means, by which extreme inequality has become an instrument of economic violence," Bucher added.

The briefing paper's authors called for curbs on extreme wealth via progressive taxation, proven inequality-busting public measures; and a bold shift power in the economy and society.

The annual World Economic Forum planned for this week in Davos has been postponed due to the pandemic. Instead, the foundation will bring top politicians together digitally.