It was a milestone that had long been anticipated—not as a gauge of how far the world had come, but as a reminder of a widening chasm in it. On June 12, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. He has been sprinting to this point; in January 2020, he was the 35th richest person in the world with a net worth of around US $28 billion. In just over five years, he has become the richest, with a net worth of $1.11 trillion, according to Forbes. Last year, Musk’s wealth grew by $1 million per minute.
The world is experiencing rapid wealth generation, raising the number of billionaires at record speed. In 2025, the figure crossed 3,000. According to non-profit Oxfam, in the last decade (2015-2025), “the world’s richest 1 per cent increased their wealth by more than $33.9 trillion in real terms”. This extreme wealth generation is accompanied by the rapid rise of poverty. Globally, one in every 10 people lives in extreme poverty. Although, the absolute number of people living in extreme poverty has not changed since 1990. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 3.4 billion people reside in countries that spend more on interest on debts than on health or education. To make sense of Musk’s $1-trillion worth, Oxfam says, “Musk would be richer than the poorest 46 per cent of the world population, or 3.8 billion people, combined.”
Inequality, as many say, is currently higher than that experienced during the colonial era. “This is a trillion-dollar alarm bell that should wake governments up to the need to take action. Never has it been more urgent to curb the accumulation of extreme wealth—overhauling the economic policies that have created not just trillionaires, but billionaires and the obscene inequality we see today,” says Nabil Ahmed, senior director of economic justice at Oxfam America. For a world that celebrates Musk’s trillion-dollar feat as a sign of success of the growth model, the other side also raises the question: why has poverty remained so persistent?
Amidst this contest, on June 10, a group of economists, civil society groups and UN agencies released “The Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth”, under the mandate of Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. The Roadmap, to be presented to the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council on June 25, has been under discussion for over 18 months and has used inputs from more than 400 people representing a wide range of institutions, movements, UN agencies and communities. It attempts to offer an answer to the question: “How can we end poverty and reduce inequalities without treating GDP growth as the primary condition for progress?”
We live in an age of manufactured scarcity, write economists Olivier De Schutter, Joseph Stiglitz, Jayati Ghosh, Thomas Piketty, Kate Raworth and Jason Hickel in an article on the Roadmap. They argue, “For decades, the recipe was simple: grow the economy, and poverty would gradually disappear. But the promise that economic growth would “lift all boats” has not been kept. While national incomes expanded, wages stagnated, work became more precarious and public services were cut. At the top, fortunes ballooned; at the bottom, families turned to food banks. Growth has become decoupled from shared prosperity.”
The Roadmap essentially junks the growth model while propagating that redistribution of all economy- and development-related aspects will be enough to bring in equality. “Reducing inequalities in income, wealth, power, status and voice is indispensable to poverty eradication. Extreme concentrations of wealth and corporate power distort democratic decision-making and undermine equal enjoyment of rights,” it says, adding, “States must deploy fiscal, monetary, financial, competition and regulatory policies to redistribute resources and curb the concentration of economic power.” It is by far the most endorsed statement on inequality and on the need to rethink the world development model so it does not leave anybody behind.
This article was originally published in the July 1-15, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth