SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Global wealth inequality widened last year as billionaires increased their fortunes by $2.5 billion per day, anti-poverty campaigner Oxfam said in a new report.
While the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth dwindle by 11%, billionaires' riches increased by 12%. The mega-wealthy have also become a more concentrated bunch. Last year, the top 26 wealthiest people owned $1.4 trillion, or as much as the 3.8 billion poorest people. The year before, it was the top 43 people.
[...] To address many of these ills, Oxfam advocated raising taxes. It estimated that a 1% wealth tax would be enough to educate 262 million out of school children and to save 3.3 million lives. As of 2015 returns, Oxfam says that only four cents in every tax dollar collected globally came from tariffs on wealth, such as inheritance or property. The report also claims that the rich are hiding $7.6 trillion in offshore accounts
Previously: Only 1% of World's Population Grabbed 82% of all 2017 Wealth
(Score: 5, Informative) by bob_super on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:41PM (1 child)
France had a wealth tax until very recently.
The point was that you have to invest your millions in something productive, so that you make at least the inflation plus the 1% tax, and having to sell/leverage enough assets to pay that tax prevents that money from freezing in place.
More importantly, it's not actually enough to drive the rich to poverty, it's not even that much money, but it's psychologically important, to keep the poor from reaching for their guillotines. The suppression of that tax (technically, it changed to only apply to real estate) is one of the things France's Gilets Jaunes keep protesting (middle-class asked to pay more taxes, while the rich got rid of the Rich Tax).
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @06:42PM
So concern about the envionment plus encouraging wasteful spending?