When exposed to extremes, everything breaks eventually. A group of wealthy elites is arguing that society is about to reach that point, unless steps are taken to close the ever-widening global wealth gap. And this week, they sent a delegation to Davos, to tell global policymakers that the solution is to tax them and the planet’s other one-percenters much, much more.
At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in the Swiss mountains—where the cost of attendance “can easily run to $159,000 for a globally minded exec,” Semafor’s Ben Smith noted on Sunday—this group, known as the Patriotic Millionaires, has unveiled a campaign labeled the Cost of Extreme Wealth, which is the latest version of what’s become a sort of annual Davos sideshow where millionaire protesters beg attendees to support significant increases in taxes on the uber-rich. This time, it’s a joint effort organized with the help of likeminded progressive-taxation outfits like Millionaires for Humanity and Europe’s Tax Me Now.
On Wednesday, they released a “Tax the ultra rich” letter signed by more than 200 millionaires in 13 different countries. It argues that for five decades now, wealth has been flowing “nowhere but upwards,” but that the pandemic shifted this into hyperdrive—the rich have seen their wealth multiply by trillions of dollars, while regular folks today are struggling to afford food and everyday household necessities. In fact, 99% of people saw their incomes decline during the pandemic, but the world’s 10 richest individuals actually doubled their wealth. “The solution is plain for all to see,” the letter’s signatories write. “You, our global representatives, have to tax us, the ultra rich, and you have to start now.”
Inaction would be “gravely concerning,” they go on to say, explaining that “a meeting of the ‘global elite’ in Davos to discuss ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’ [this year’s theme] is pointless if you aren’t challenging the root cause of division.”
“Patriotic Millionaires” sounds like a political action committee registered in Mar-a-Lago, but it’s actually a group of self-described “high-net worth Americans committed to building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation.” At its core are a vocal crew of members like the filmmaker and heiress Abigail Disney, the actor Mark Ruffalo, and the group’s two unofficial ringleaders—multimillionaire ex-consultant Phil White and Marlene Engelhorn, who is among a crop of young rich European leftists who have pleaded for their inherited wealth to be taxed at a far higher rate. White and Engelhorn both traveled to Switzerland this week in person, and spent this last weekend protesting with anti-Davos groups like Strike WEF and speaking at rallies about the need to tax the rich to tackle global inequality.
And on Monday, they delivered their letter to Gabriela Bucher, Oxfam’s executive director and a regular WEF speaker. In years past, Oxfam worked with Patriotic Millionaires to press attendees to address rising income inequality. The charity group’s newest report, titled Survival of the Richest, was released this week to coincide with WEF, and it found that since the pandemic started, the world’s richest 1% have accumulated about two-thirds of all new wealth created globally. Broken down, that means of the $42 trillion in new wealth that has been created, the top 1% collected $26 trillion. The planet’s remaining 8 billion people got the rest—coming to an average of $1,000 per person per year, and suggesting the pace at which the rich are becoming richer has sped up. Taxes on the very wealthy must be increased as a “strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy,” Bucher told the media on Monday.
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