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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: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday January 23 2019, @04:36AM (1 child)
Is it harder to track wealth than to try and track every private transaction so that you can take a percentage of that?
You front up with a form once a year listing assets and values and pay your tax.
Anything you 'forget' to put on the form is subject to confiscation if caught. After all, if you didn't remember it, you won't miss it.
I would support a moderate threshold and limited primary residence exclusions, something like 2 years of national average annual income worth of possessions, and the first $500000 of residence value. At those limits assets are more likely to be personal possessions rather than income generating wealth.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @05:25AM
And just like originally only 1%ers paid income tax, in a decade or so a trailer will cost $500k.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1913 [wikipedia.org]