Abigail Disney, Brian Cox and Valerie Rockefeller among signatories of open letter condemning inequality

Abigail Disney, Brian Cox and Valerie Rockefeller among signatories of open letter condemning inequality

More than 250 billionaires and millionaires are demanding that the political elite meeting for the World Economic Forum in Davos introduce wealth taxes to help pay for better public services around the world.

“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the very richest in society,” the wealthy people said in an open letter to world leaders. “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.”

The rich signatories from 17 countries include Disney heir Abigail Disney; Brian Cox who played fictional billionaire Logan Roy in Succession; actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg; and Valerie Rockefeller , an heir to the US dynasty.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    1312·
    11 months ago

    Republicans idolize the 1950s. They conveniently forget about the part where the top tax bracket was taxed at 90%.

    And now they claim if we have a wealth tax, they’ll just move. Massachusetts passed a wealth tax recently. Astoundingly, all the wealthy people didn’t move. Turns out they’re fine paying a premium to have a house in Martha’s Vineyard and a condo in Boston because, and I know this is a shock to Republicans, they can afford to pay a premium to live somewhere desirable.

    • SwampYankee@mander.xyz
      351·
      11 months ago

      Massachusetts passed a wealth tax recently.

      Not to be pedantic, but it’s an income tax.

            • Taldan@lemmy.world
              4·
              11 months ago

              Just because some people call it a wealth tax does not mean we should perpetuate the micsonception

              It’s an income tax on high earners, and objectively not a wealth tax no matter how many people call it that

              • SwampYankee@mander.xyz
                1·
                11 months ago

                Agreed. Having lived through the ad campaigns and voted for this tax myself, I can confirm that I, at least, never heard anyone call it a wealth tax. A millionaire’s tax, sure, but that’s just a catchy shorthand. If you do the google search Mr. Flying Squid suggested, you’ll find a lot of sources calling it a millionaire’s tax, and maybe a couple calling it a wealth tax. The ones calling it a wealth tax are just plain wrong.

      • Ooops@kbin.social
        45·
        11 months ago

        There is no legal definition or concept for a “wealth tax”. You usually tax income or you tax property.

        And while taxing property is the more obvious one, both can be a wealth tax depending on who is paying majorily by its design (for example a progressive income tax where low incomes barely pay anything reaching 90%+ over a certain limit -see 1950- is definitely a wealth tax).

    • fosforus@sopuli.xyz
      91·
      11 months ago

      I think they idolize 1950s mainly for sociopolitical reasons. The 1800s are more like the government-minimalist ideal.

    • HubertManne@kbin.social
      119·
      11 months ago

      Yeah and if you look at tax rates since then you can see lowering them generally makes things worse and the few times they were raised even a little was followed by better times. Thing is we are so far in a tax deficit that it will take having high rates for awhile to get back to a decent level. EDITED per comment as the first one was supposed to be lowering.