Anti-poverty Group: World Could See First Trillionaire within 10 Years

Anti-poverty Group: World Could See First Trillionaire within 10 Years

反贫困组织：世界可能在10年内出现首位万亿富翁

【听力音频】

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　　By Dan Friedell

　　16 January 2024

　　Oxfam, an organization that works to end poverty, has predicted the world will likely see its first trillionaire within 10 years.

　　The prediction comes as the world's wealthiest nations gather in Davos, Switzerland for both public and private meetings. Leaders from more than 60 nations will be discussing issues including ongoing world conflicts, the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on businesses, climate change and the future of democracy.

　　Oxfam often points out the huge wealth differences between the world's richest and poorest. It noted these differences had become "supercharged" since the COVID-19 pandemic.

　　Oxfam noted the five wealthiest people in the world had seen their worth increase by over 100 percent since 2020. They include Elon Musk of Tesla, Bernard Arnault of the luxury goods company LVMH, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett.

　　Amitabh Behar is Oxfam's current director. Behar said the world is entering a "decade of division." The group's leader noted that while the five wealthiest people had doubled their worth since 2020, "almost 5 billion people have become poorer."

　　Behar predicted that in about 10 years, the world will have its first trillionaire. A trillionaire would be a person worth 1,000 billion dollars. Behar noted that the fight against poverty would take much longer, at least 200 years.

　　The organization said it is possible the person who becomes the first trillionaire is not currently known, meaning the individual may not be one of the five wealthiest people today.

　　American John D. Rockefeller, of Standard Oil fame, is widely considered to have become the world's first billionaire in 1916.

　　Currently, Musk is the richest man on the planet, with a personal worth of just under $250 billion, Oxfam says. The organization makes its estimates based on data from the publication Forbes.

　　While many of the rich got richer in the last four years, Oxfam says about 5 billion people became poorer during that time. This is because many poor nations could not provide financial support to their people when economies slowed down due to COVID-19.

　　In addition, high inflation since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has increased the cost of food and other basic supplies.

　　While the meeting in Davos only lasts until Friday, Oxfam said it will continue talking about wealth inequalities. This year's Group of 20 meeting of the world's most developed countries will be held this July in Brazil. Max Lawson is head of Oxfam's inequality policy department. He said that meeting will also be a good time to raise awareness about the problem of world poverty.

　　Oxfam is calling on Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to include poverty problems in the developing world in G20 discussions. The group would like him to bring up issues such as a permanent wealth tax in every nation, stronger taxation of large companies and a campaign against tax avoidance.

　　Oxfam said it looked at the world's wealthiest people based on rankings from Forbes in November 2023. For the poorest people, Oxfam looked at numbers from the UBS Global Wealth Report 2023 and the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook of 2019.

　　I'm Dan Friedell.

　　Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press.

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　　作者：Dan Friedell

　　2024年1月16日

　　致力于消除贫困的组织乐施会预测，世界可能在10年内见证首位万亿富翁的诞生。

　　这个预测是在世界最富有的国家在瑞士达沃斯进行公开和私人会议之际提出的。来自60多个国家的领导人将讨论包括持续的世界冲突、人工智能（AI）对商业的影响、气候变化和民主的未来等问题。

　　乐施会经常指出世界上最富有和最贫穷之间的巨大财富差距。它指出，自从COVID-19大流行以来，这些差距已经被"超级放大"。

　　乐施会指出，自2020年以来，世界上最富有的五个人的财富增长了100%以上。他们包括特斯拉的埃隆·马斯克，奢侈品公司LVMH的贝尔纳·阿诺，亚马逊的杰夫·贝佐斯，甲骨文的拉里·埃利森和伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司的沃伦·巴菲特。

　　阿米塔布·贝哈尔是乐施会的现任主任。贝哈尔说，世界正在进入一个"分裂的十年"。该组织的领导人指出，虽然五个最富有的人自2020年以来已经翻倍了他们的财富，"但近50亿人变得更穷了。"

　　贝哈尔预测，大约在10年后，世界将有第一位万亿富翁。万亿富翁是指财富达到1000亿美元的人。贝哈尔指出，反贫困的斗争将需要更长的时间，至少200年。

　　该组织表示，可能成为第一位万亿富翁的人目前还不为人所知，这意味着这个人可能不是今天最富有的五个人之一。

　　美国标准石油公司的约翰·D·洛克菲勒被广泛认为是1916年成为世界上第一位亿万富翁的人。

　　乐施会表示，目前，马斯克是地球上最富有的人，个人财富略低于2500亿美元。该组织根据《福布斯》杂志的数据进行估算。

　　乐施会表示，尽管许多富人在过去四年中变得更富有，但在那段时间里，大约50亿人变得更穷。这是因为许多贫穷的国家在经济因COVID-19而放缓时无法为他们的人民提供财政支持。

　　此外，自从俄罗斯在2022年入侵乌克兰以来，高通胀使食品和其他基本供应的成本上升。

　　虽然达沃斯的会议只持续到周五，但乐施会表示，它将继续讨论财富不平等问题。今年的20国集团会议将于7月在巴西举行。Max Lawson是乐施会的不平等政策部门的负责人。他说，那次会议也将是提高人们对世界贫困问题的认识的好时机。

　　乐施会呼吁巴西总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达·席尔瓦在G20讨论中包括发展中国家的贫困问题。该组织希望他提出诸如在每个国家设立永久财富税、对大公司进行更强的税收和反对避税的活动等问题。

　　乐施会表示，它根据2023年11月《福布斯》的排名查看了世界上最富有的人。对于最贫穷的人，乐施会查看了2023年UBS全球财富报告和2019年瑞士信贷全球财富数据库的数据。

　　我是Dan Friedell。

　　Dan Friedell根据美联社的报道为英语学习改编了这个故事。

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　　本故事中的词汇

　　supercharge – v. 使某物更强大或更令人印象深刻

　　decade – n. 十年的时间段