Over 200 millionaires make fervent call to world leaders to tax ultra-rich

More than 200 millionaires have made a fervent appeal to the world leaders and business executives meeting in Davos for this week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) “to tackle extreme wealth”by taxing the ultra-rich to ease the cost-of-living crisis.

The Patriotic Millionaires — a self-described group of “high-net-worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America”— has asked to “tax us, the ultra-rich, now” to help the ordinary household.

“The current lack of action is gravely concerning. A meeting of the ‘global elite’ in Davos to discuss‘cooperation in a fragmented world’ is pointless if you aren’t challenging the root cause of division,” they said in anopen letterpublished on Wednesday.

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“Defending democracy and building cooperation requires action to build fairer economies right now – it is not a problem that can be left for our children to fix.

“Now is the time to tackle extreme wealth; now is the time to tax the ultra-rich,” they said.

The millionaires from 13 countries, in the letter, noted how the wealth of the super-rich has been trending upwards in the last five decades, while those in the lower strata are struggling to even make their basic ends meet.

“The history of the last five decades is a story of wealth flowing nowhere but upwards. In the last few years, this trend has greatly accelerated …The solution is plain for all to see. You, our global representatives, have to tax us, the ultra-rich, and you have to start now.”

“There’s only so much stress any society can take, only so many times mothers and fathers will watch their children go hungry while the ultra-rich contemplate their growing wealth. The cost of action is much cheaper than the cost of inaction – it’s time to get on with the job.”

This comes days after an Oxfam report showingthatthe world’s richest 1 per cent have pocketed nearly two-thirds of all new global wealth over the last two years, amassing $26 trillion out of $42 trillion created in that period.

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