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Mega-rich renew call on global leaders at Davos to 'tax our extreme wealth'

More than 250 billionaires and millionaires on Wednesday reiterated their call on elected representatives of the world’s leading economies to introduce higher taxes on the very richest in society.

In an open letter to political leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the rich signatories said they wished to deliver a clear message: “Tax our extreme wealth.”

“We are surprised that you have failed to answer a simple question that we have been asking for three years: when will you tax extreme wealth?” the letter said.

“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society. This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, nor deprive our children, nor harm our nations’ economic growth. But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future.”

coffeeauntie ,

If you’re an EU citizen, you can sign this petition for an EU wealth tax eci.ec.europa.eu/038/public/#/screen/home

Akasazh ,
@Akasazh@feddit.nl avatar

Great, thnx for sharing!

rando895 ,

Them: “Gee things are getting bad… The last time the poor were this bad off heads started rolling… How did we avoid that? Ohh yeah! Concessions! What if we SAY we want to give them concessions, and then tell the government not to? That should work!”

-The wealthy leeches, enemies of humanity

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

When the heads started rolling generally there was mass starvation. “Unfortunately” most of us are still too comfortable and unmotivated to force change that way. At least in the countries where most of these people are.

demonsword ,
@demonsword@lemmy.world avatar

Fucking hypocrites. “Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society" and then they let loose their army of lobbysts and lawyers to stop governments from even trying to tax them.

Silentiea ,

Well, yeah. Plausible deniability, my good Demonsword.

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

I mean, there’s a LOT of billionaires at this point. Are the ones saying this at Davos all (or largely) ones that are doing that lobbying?

demonsword ,
@demonsword@lemmy.world avatar

there’s a LOT of billionaires at this point

you can’t even fill a small stadium if you gathered all of the world’s billionaires, its only a few thousand… 2-3k last time I’ve seen that statistic

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

Ok, then, this would be 10% writing this letter, and my question wasn’t answered.

ynthrepic ,
@ynthrepic@lemmy.world avatar

They could also commit to giving 10% of their personal income or 2.5% of the value of their ne worth (whichever is greater) to the most effective charities now, while they’re waiting for the taxes to come.

Chris Anderson (of TED) has suggested this and had the math run, and worked out if every ultra wealthy person on record in the world did this it would generate enough money solve basically all pressing concerns to do with poverty and climate many times over (so we don’t even need all of them).

It’s never going to happen though, because Chris hasn’t accounted for the fact that most people who acquire wealth to this degree are some degree of sociopathic or at the very least believe somehow they’re entitled to be as wealthy as they are. So we need government regulation. Problem is we need it everywhere all at once, or these people just move their wealth around which can still severely damage the economy. But some countries, especially smaller ones, need to be brave. Europe taxes their wealthy reasonably well, and it’s clear it makes living in those nations better. More need to lead by example.

AA5B ,

And yet, I was reading a similar thread yesterday, where most of the replies were critical and distrusting about one of the richest people giving most of his wealth to charity.

Just like they are not all the same and some will never be satisfied, the same is true of Lemmy

aseriesoftubes ,

Wild-ass idea here. If these wealthy individuals want to be separated from their extreme wealth so badly, why don’t they reduce their executive compensation and distribute the difference among their employees? You know, the people who do the work that earns them the extreme wealth in the first place.

Llamalitmus ,

Because capitalism.
The less glib answer, though a bit of an over simplification, is that the current trend of neoliberalism discourages self limitation and collective collaboration. If regulation is not put in place and enforced by forces (government, social contract, etc) then people are incentivize to push and make use of any advantage available. Not doing it risks being displaced by those who do. Competition becomes toxic and self perpetuating

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

So basically “please put rules in place that protect us from ourselves”.

They have enough self awareness to know that it’s bad, but too much greed/drive/whatever to risk someone else getting ahead of them, so they need an outside entity to step in and change the playing field.

billiam0202 ,

“Ourselves” as in the collective, not “ourselves” as individuals. It doesn’t matter how well-meaning the world’s billionaires are, if you don’t put guardrails in place eventually one of them will abuse the “norm but not outright illegal” system and we’ll be right back here.

Llamalitmus ,

Look at the US. They thought there were all these rules restricting a variety of things relating to governmental powers. Trump ignored a bunch of them, and it turns out there weren’t laws in place to prevent or enforce repercussions. Just conventions that most politicians abided by. Now they’ve got that cluster fuck. Or more directly related, there were laws regulating the stock market. Those regulations have been eroded over time by those who would benefit. We let them, and now inequality is off the charts. Systems this big and intertwined need structure. You can argue about whether you want it centralized or decentralized, but it needs structure. Letting people decide what is right for themselves leads to what we have now. Those with money have the power, and they are free to keep taking from those at the bottom.

Llamalitmus ,

And let’s not fool ourselves. I’m sure that at least some, if not most, of these signatories aren’t doing this out of some altruistic streak. Doesn’t take morals to see that we’re headed for class war. That or economic collapse. They are giving up some money/power/control so they don’t risk losing it all.

Yewb ,

How about we create a system that makes it impossible to be a billionaire, and makes it impossible to horde generational wealth?

These people are literally trying to save their asses from the masses - they dont want to give up anything.

Oh also we need massive death taxes to reset this horrible system.

crusa187 ,

massive death taxes

That’s one very good way to ensure one of our most popular governmental programs, Social Security, remains quite solvent.

eestileib ,

Maybe they should stop bribing elected officials to lower taxes on them then?

Talk about crocodile tears, ffs.

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

and it's not like their governments wouldn't accept extra money, either. i know the u.s. government accepts 'donations' to the general budget or specifically to reduce the federal (public) debt.

girlfreddy ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

But donating quietly would defeat their purpose to publically “take a stand”, in the hope we wouldn’t have a massive BBQ!

sheogorath ,

They’re just covering their asses when the masses have started to develop taste for the rich.

girlfreddy ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Yup. They’re starting to feel the flames tickling their feet and are getting worried … it’s too little - too late tho.

No mercy rules.

Asafum ,

I mean I get what you’re saying, but these people asking to get taxed more “obviously” aren’t the people lobbying government to not get taxed. I’d bet it’s the CEOs and “lower level” assholes that want every benefit imaginable so they can appear to be doing a Good Job™ and collect their massive bonuses. :(

kimjongunderdog ,

I guess it's fun to cosplay as a poor, but they keep bribing politicians to prevent that. Their wealth can make that happen if they actually wanted that.

Stalinwolf ,
@Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca avatar

We need a good man like Davos in charge. A fine and honorable man. A man who could smuggle an onion through naval blockade.

kusuriya ,
@kusuriya@infosec.pub avatar

I’ll reply to that the same way the head of the US treasury replied once for US billionaires who were saying they should pay more tax “Don’t wait, we accept gifts, donations, and any money you want to send us, check our site, call us up, whatever, you can do it via cash, wire transfer, credit, or check. We stand by for you to send us that extra money”

frunch ,

If they’re that rich, they can easily fund a means of dispersing their wealth back to the system they’ve extracted it from

I mean, i can totally see the southern-accented rich lady on her fainting couch fanning herself with a spread of hundred dollar bills, “oh i do declare! If only the leadership could concoct a means for which i may reallocate much of these funds that have been slung over my shoulders for ever so long! I tell ya, a girl could just fall over with all this wealth on her back!”

Jajcus ,

This would only give more power to the remaining billionaires, who won't disperse money on their own. This is why it must be a systemic change and not a volunteer action.

frunch ,

You’re god damn right 🤜🤛

SlopppyEngineer ,

Classic prisoner’s dilemma.

OpenStars ,
@OpenStars@startrek.website avatar

Put your money where your mouth is and then I will believe it - bribe/threaten to withhold funds from a politician and just get it done.

Putin does that by funding things like the NRA and Faux News.

It’s highly effective.

grte ,

This is marketing. If they really wanted this they would lobby for it, the same way they get all their other interests looked after.

Zoboomafoo , (edited )

lob·by: seek to influence (a politician or public official) on an issue.

How isn’t this lobbying?

grte ,

Not the dictionary definition of lobby, but the colloquial sense where it’s a synonym for bribery.

Zoboomafoo ,

Maybe you should use “bribery” then

grte ,

No. Maybe you should mind your business.

crusa187 ,

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. We literally have a system of legalized bribery in the US. Sure they call it “campaign finance donations,” but it’s no coincidence that politicians come through for those donors every single time. Sadly, this includes foreign governments as well (Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.)

The only surprising thing about this is that more foreign governments haven’t caught on. Our politicians are on sale for surprisingly cheap.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod ,
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

As a wise man once said: “Give it away, give it away, give it away now”

JohnnyCanuck ,
@JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca avatar

At first I thought this was billionaires only and it would be somewhat significant. Then I saw Simon Pegg listed and did a triple take, then realized I missed the words “and millionaires” in the first sentence.

I’m guessing there aren’t that many billionaires that would put their names on this list. ~250 millionaires is nothing, there are millions of them.

givesomefucks ,

I remember this from a few days ago…

All the main “billionaires” are people who are heirs to billions but don’t have it yet.

It’s easy to say you don’t need billions when it’s hypothetical. It’s a lot different when you have the money

riodoro1 ,

Definetely not just for the papers.

They willingly want to get less rich. Thats why you know… got rich in the first place.

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