{"id":1007,"date":"2024-01-31T06:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T06:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/?p=1007"},"modified":"2024-02-04T03:59:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T03:59:10","slug":"billionaires-millionaires-open-letter-for-wealth-tax-to-pay-for-public-services-stable-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/billionaires-millionaires-open-letter-for-wealth-tax-to-pay-for-public-services-stable-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 250 billionaires and millionaires sign open letter for wealth taxes on themselves to provide better public services and more stable economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(quote)

\n\n\u201cOur request is simple: tax us, the very richest in society,” they write in an open letter.<\/a>
\n\u201cIf elected representatives of the world\u2019s leading economies do not take steps to address the dramatic rise of economic inequality, the consequences will continue to be catastrophic,\u201d the letter writes.

\n\nAmong the letter\u2019s signatories: Valerie Rockefeller, heir to the American oil and industry dynasty; actor Brian Cox, best known for playing billionaire businessman Logan Roy on HBO\u2019s Succession; and filmmaker Abigail Disney, who\u2019s long leaned on her last name to publicly campaign for wealth reform.

\n\n\u201cI could be a billionaire if I wanted to be a billionaire, and I\u2019m not because I don\u2019t want to be a billionaire,\u201d Disney told New York Magazine\u2019s The Cut in 2019. \u201cThat\u2019s an insane amount of money. But it\u2019s the easiest thing in the world to make money if you start with money.\u201d

\n\nA new poll released by advocacy group Patriotic Millionaires finds that 75% of the uber-wealthy support a 2% wealth tax on billionaires. Plenty are willing to apply that standard to their own bank accounts, too: 66% of respondents agreed that they would support higher taxes on themselves if the revenue would be used to provide better public services and a more stable economy.

\n\nThe report surveyed 2,385 people living in G20 countries who hold more than $1 million in investable assets, excluding their housing. Patriotic Millionaires is also one of the groups behind the open letter.

\n\nIn countries like the US, the chasm between the rich and the poor continues to widen. One long-term analysis found that over three decades, the net worth of the top 1% of Americans swelled by $21 trillion, while that of the bottom 50% dropped by $900 billion. Today, the bottom 50% of American households own just 2% of the nation\u2019s wealth.

\n\nImposing a 2% tax on the world\u2019s billionaires alone would raise almost $250 billion annually, according to a recent report by the EU Tax Observatory.

\n\n\u201cThe true measure of a society can be found not just in how it treats its most vulnerable, but in what it asks of its wealthiest members,\u201d the letter writes. \u201cOur future is one of tax pride, or economic shame. That\u2019s the choice.\u201d

\n\nThe world\u2019s 1st trillionaire is on our heels as the rest of us are getting poorer<\/a>\nBy 2034, one of the world\u2019s richest men \u2013 Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffett or Bernard Arnault \u2013 could be the first trillionaire.

\n\nA recent report from Oxfam International, an organization focused on the alleviation of global poverty, found that these five wealthy men are 114 percent richer than they were in 2020. This \u201csupercharged surge in extreme wealth\u201d has only widened the wealth gap with nearly five billion people having been made poorer since the pandemic, according to the report.

\n\n\u201cThe United States is home to the most billionaires on Earth, including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, names that have become synonymous with obscene wealth,\u201d Oxfam American President and CEO Abby Maxman said in a statement. Currently, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of X (Twitter), is considered the world\u2019s richest person, with a net worth of $226.6 billion.

\n\nWhile America holds the most billionaires and ranks first as the richest nation \u2013 in terms of gross domestic product \u2013 still 37.9 million Americans live in poverty making below $12,880. People across the world are working more hours and picking up side gigs as the wages of nearly 800 million workers globally have remained the same for two years despite inflation, Oxfam reports.

\n\n(unquote)

\n\nImage courtesy Illustration \/ Alexis Wray<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(quote) \u201cOur request is simple: tax us, the very richest in society,” they write in an open letter. \u201cIf elected representatives of the world\u2019s leading economies do not take steps to address the dramatic rise of economic inequality, the consequences will continue to be catastrophic,\u201d the letter writes. Among theRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8,10,12],"tags":[26,27,74,59,63,35,52,23,41],"class_list":["entry","author-wcp-system-thinker","post-1007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-figures-and-facts","category-health-and-lifestyle","category-life-nature-society","category-quotes-and-philosophy","category-us-and-world","tag-facts","tag-figures","tag-government","tag-health","tag-living","tag-news","tag-people","tag-policy","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}