With the 2022 World Economic Forum virtual event in full swing, a group of wealthy individuals has addressed the attendees with a proposal to share their wealth.
The authors of the open letter in question argued that as millionaires, they don't think that the existing tax system is fair, seeing how most of them witnessed their wealth grow amid the ongoing pandemic, yet few of them agree that they pay their “fair share of taxes."
"This injustice baked into the foundation of the international tax system has created a colossal lack of trust between the people of the world and the elites who are the architects of this system," they wrote. "Bridging that divide is going to take more than billionaire vanity projects or piecemeal philanthropic gestures – it’s going to take a complete overhaul of a system that up until now has been deliberately designed to make the rich richer."
Restoring trust, the millionaires argued, "requires taxing the rich" and that "Davos" does not deserve the world’s trust "right now."
"For all the countless hours spent talking about making the world a better place, the conference has produced little tangible value amidst a torrent of self-congratulations," they remarked.
The open letter’s authors also pointed out that “history paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like” and stated that it is time to “confront inequality and choose to tax the rich."
"If you don’t, then all the private talks won’t change what’s coming - it’s taxes or pitchforks. Let’s listen to history and choose wisely,” they concluded.
The letter featured signatures of over 100 individuals, including such prominent figures as Abigail Disney, documentary film producer and granddaughter of the Walt Disney Company co-founder Roy O. Disney, and Nick Hanauer, venture capitalist and one of the early Amazon investors.