Richest eight people in the world are now worth $1 trillion

Got to love that trickle down economics, eh?

The world's eight richest people have added more than $100 billion to their total net worth in the past year. Their combined riches now reach an eye-watering $1 trillion. Google's co-founders joined the list of uber-wealthy billionaires with more than $100 billion to their name last week, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Bill Gates was the first billionaire to reach this wealth milestone in 1999. His wealth took a slight dip due to the 'dot-com bubble burst', before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took the title of the world's only 'centibillionaire' in 2017. Gates then rejoined him on that list in 2019. The rapid growth of names on this list in the four years since should ring alarm bells for anyone concerned by wealth inequality. Tesla founder Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are also on the list, which is dominated by US-based tech giants. To put into context the absurdity of the wealth increase these tycoons have seen in the past year: Oxfam claim that the 10 richest people in the world experienced a combined wealth increase of $540 billion during the pandemic, which could have covered the costs for vaccines for everyone, and prevented everyone from falling into poverty during the pandemic. The charity believe this staggering wealth increase came as a result of a "rigged economy", causing rising inequality during the "worst economic downturn in a century." I mean, it's definitely not a result of them working twice as hard, is it? The jump in demand for tech services throughout the pandemic, as the world became more reliant on communication devices during lockdowns, saw share prices in tech giants sky rocket. Elon Musk benefited from the biggest surge in personal net worth during the pandemic, but still trails behind Bezos' net worth of close to $200 billion. Still, good to see trickle down economics in full flow.