Billionaires profit from a pandemic!

US billionaires saw their collective wealth increase by $282 billion in the first twenty-three days of lockdown.

By Haritha Olaganathan

US billionaires saw their collective wealth increase by $282 billion in the first twenty-three days of lockdown.

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the biggest financial reaper, as shares in the social media company have surged by almost 60% over the past two months. Another profiteer includes CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos, whose wealth has increased by $25 billion since April 15th 2020. Bezos, the richest man in the world, currently boasts a net worth of $146.9 billion, and is expected to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2026. 

Whilst the super-rich manipulate this pandemic to churn out maximum profits, billions of workers are subject to inhuman levels of pay and gruelling working conditions. Covid-19 has provoked workers at Amazon to organise against their sickening treatment, notably walking out of warehouses to demand proper PPE and hazard pay as part of May Day protests.

Total
2
Shares
Previous Article

Mental health: We can’t tolerate the intolerable

Next Article

Working-class solidarity in a time of crisis

Related Posts
Read More

Mental health & Covid-19 – we won’t suffer in silence!

Northern Ireland has long suffered with a mental health crisis, which will only be added to by the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. Almost a fifth of the population suffer from mental health issues, 25% more than England. For many people, this issue is linked to the North's past conflict. It’s easy to see why: 60% of citizens surveyed claimed they had experienced a traumatic event in their life, with 19% of those being conflict-related and 16% involving witnessing a death or serious injury. Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of intergenerational trauma in the world, manifesting in 8.8% of people showing signs of having post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lifetime.

Read More

Covid-19: health not profit – a vaccine should be free and accessible to all!

On 4 May, a Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Conference took place with state leaders from Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, UK, Canada, Norway, Jordan, Israel, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and the European Commission. The conference aimed to raise £6.5 billion from governments and foundations to invest in the research into and development of a vaccine for Covid-19.