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«Proud to pay»: over 250 billionaires and millionaires are calling on governments to introduce or raise taxes on wealth. They do so with an open letter, released on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which opened on Monday 15 January with the Oxfam report on global inequalities, which have increased dramatically since 2020.
«Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the richest in society. This – we read in the letter – will not radically alter our standard of living, it will not impoverish our children and it will not damage the economic growth of our nations. But it will transform extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment in our shared democratic future.”
Beautiful taxes?
The letter is available on the site proudtopaymore.org, where the collection of signatures is still open. The signatories, coming from 17 countries, include Disney heir Abigail Disney, Brian Cox, who played billionaire Logan Roy in Succession, actor and screenwriter Simon Pegg and Valerie Rockefeller, heir to the US dynasty.
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Photogallery17 foto
“Taxes are wonderful, a very civilized way of contributing to essential services such as health and school,” said the then Minister of Economy Tommaso Padoa Schioppa in 2007. The signatories of Proud to pay more seem to think the same. «Inequality has reached a tipping point, and its cost to economic, social and ecological stability is severe and growing every day. In short, we must act now,” the letter reads.
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«Threat to democracy»
A recent survey of the super-rich, conducted by Survation on behalf of the group Patriotic Millionaires, shows that 74% support increasing taxes on wealth to help tackle the cost of living crisis and improve public services. The survey interviewed more than 2,300 people in the top 5% of the world‘s population with more than $1 million in investable assets, excluding homes.