Welcome to the ‘4 comma club,’ where South African native Elon Musk is slated to be the first human being of the modern age to have accumulated $1 trillion dollars.

To put that mindboggling number into some perspective, that is more than the Gross Domestic Product of 170 countries, including Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Musk will not be alone for long in this ultra-privileged, ultra-exclusive club. Since billionaire wealth has risen three times faster in 2024 than in 2023, within the next decade, five people will hold the title of trillionaire, according to a recent study from the anti-poverty watchdog Oxfam.

Meanwhile, due to an assortment of external factors, like climate change and conflict, the number of people living in abject poverty has hardly changed since 1990. Almost 700 million people, 8.5 percent of the global population, now live on less than $2.15 per day.

The report goes on to show that the election of Donald Trump as US President in November 2024 has translated into a massive increase in billionaire wealth, while his aggressive pro-rich policies are predicted to exasperate inequality further. In its latest report on poverty, the World Bank calculates that if present growth rates continue........

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