2024-01-19 13:17:07
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Marc Benioff, president and CEO of Salesforce; Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer; Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom; Julie Sweet, president and CEO of Accenture; and CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria talk about technological advances on January 18. Image: World Economic Forum.
Within the framework of Davos World Economic Forum, a prominent group of businessmen, made up of some of the wealthiest personalities globally, has raised their voice in favor of a proposal that seeks to increase the tax contribution of the richest. This initiative, titled “Proud to pay more” (“Proud to pay more” in Spanish)has as its central objective directing these additional resources towards the improvement of public services, with the vision of promoting a common democratic future and raising the quality of life of the population.
Among the signatories of this initiative are prominent names such as Abigail Disney, Disney heiress, and renowned actor Simon Peggwho join more than 250 businessmen and billionaires from at least 17 countries.
The proposal, presented during the 54th edition of the Davos Forum, seeks for political leaders to consider the implementation of higher taxes on wealth as a means to transform the accumulation of idle private wealth into an investment destined to benefit the shared democratic future.
Business leaders, aware of the extreme disparity in the distribution of wealth, advocate a measure that, according to their perspective, would contribute to financing higher quality public services worldwide. Through a letter issued this Wednesday, expressed the need for politicians to take responsibility for introducing additional taxes on wealthconsidering them as a way to support the substantial improvement of public services in various parts of the world.
“Our request is simple: we ask you to tax us, the richest in society”say the rich in an open letter to world leaders. “This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, deprive our children, or harm the economic growth of our nations. But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment in our common democratic future.”
“We are also the people who benefit the most from the status quo“, they state in a letter titled Proud to Pay, which they will try to deliver on Wednesday to world leaders meeting in Davos (Switzerland): “But inequality has reached a tipping point, and its cost to our economic, social and ecological stability is serious, and increases every day. In short, we need to act now.”
Billionaires want to pay more taxes
The Patriotic Millionaires, a group of American millionaires concerned about economic instability and inequality in their country, conducted a global survey to analyze the perceptions of other millionaires. They interviewed 2,300 people with assets exceeding one million dollars and, based on the results, they came to the conclusion that the 74% of them support increasing taxes on their wealth.
In detail, 58% showed their support for the implementation of a 2% tax on the wealth of those with capital greater than 10 million dollars, while 54% considered that extreme wealth represented a threat to democracy.
A report titled “Beyond GDP: who grows and at what price?”, prepared by the Futuro Policy Lab study center and the Spanish Institute of Analysts, highlights the importance of inequality and climate change as factors that have exacerbated instability in the world.
The study argues that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)which is the main metric of the current economic system, can be a trap when evaluating the economic development of a country. It is noted that, between 1946 and 1980 in the United States, all incomes grew close to the average (2%), but in the following four decades, an unbridgeable gap opened. While the income increase for the poorest 50% was less than 1%, the richest percentile in the country increased their income by 3%.
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