Several international organizations, including the (Paris) NGO Oxfam and a group of philanthropic millionaires, are proposing to tax the richest people on the planet, helping billions of people out of poverty and vaccinating the planet against COVID-19.
Posted 7:25 pm
“As billions of people are fighting for survival during this epidemic, the fortunes of billionaires are out of control, which is not fair,” said Jenny Ricks, the global coordinator of the Fight Inequality Alliance, a movement of activists from one of the collective member organizations.
On Monday, ten rich people on the planet, including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, doubled their fortune to $ 1.5 trillion in two years from the COVID-19 epidemic, according to an Oxfam report. 19, thanks to an increase in the stock prices of the companies in which they are shareholders.
In addition to the Fight Inequality Alliance, the NGO Oxfam, the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and Patriotic Millionaires, an organization of affluent Americans, are participating in the public appeal on Wednesday.
The set proposes to establish a 2% annual tax on individuals with more than $ 5 million, 3% on assets over $ 50 million and an annual tax of 5% after $ 1 billion, bringing in $ 2520 billion each year.
With this total, the ensemble explains that 2.3 billion people will be lifted out of poverty and that all people on the planet can be vaccinated with COVID-19, although most countries are now showing disappointingly low vaccination rates, especially in Africa.
The group said the jackpot would also provide universal health coverage and social protection to 3.6 billion people living in low- and middle-income countries.
While the high tax would increase from $ 50 million to $ 3620 billion a year, Jenny Ricks told AFP that the lower tax option was more “realistic”.
These proposals are similar to the traditional annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), which will be held online for the second year in a row due to the Omicron variant.
In an open letter to forum attendees, more than 100 millionaires, including members of the Patriotic Millionaires, said Wednesday that the current tax regime is “not right”. “Every country in the world should demand that the rich pay their fair share,” the letter said. “Tax us on the rich and tax us now. ⁇
