Davos Forum: Against inequalities, NGO Oxfam wants to delete billionaires

“Each billionaire represents a public policy failure” affirms the organization, which proposes in a report to reduce by two the number of billionaires by 2030, then to suppress them in the long term.

by MO12345lemonde with AFP

Divide by two the number of billionaires by 2030 and then “abolish” them in the long term: on the occasion of the World Economic Forum which opens Monday January 16, the NGO Oxfam strikes hard on the Large fortunes, figures and support for supporting taxation

“Each billionaire represents a failure of public policy”, writes the international organization in its annual report on inequalities , at the start of a week of exchanges between economic and political elites in the station Swiss ski skiing from Davos. “Economic inequalities have reached extreme and dangerous levels,” she says.

carried by the outbreak of the scholarship prices, the big fortunes have been extremely enriched in the last ten years: out of 100 dollars of wealth created, 54.4 dollars have gone into the pockets of the easiest 1 %, While 70 cents benefited the 50 % the least wealthy, the NGO notes. In total, these “1 %” captured sixty-four times more wealth than the “50 %”.

of ever more numerous billionaires

The billionaires have doubled their fortune, while being more and more numerous, says Oxfam, whose director general, Gabriela Bucher, is invited to Switzerland.

Now, “the extreme concentration of wealth mines economic growth, corrupts politicians and the media, corrodes democracy and increases polarization”, writes the NGO, adding that inequalities have become “an existential threat to our societies , paralyzing our ability to stem poverty “, and put” the future of the planet (…) in danger “.

According to the international organization, taxation has a “crucial” role to play in order to reduce the number of billionaires on the planet, and must affect the easiest income and capital.

Among the measures proposed in this report: an exceptional tax on fortune, a tax on dividends, and an increase in taxation on income from work and capital of the richest.

tax capital, a financial windfall to be exploited

Capital, a financial windfall “much greater than wages” for large fortunes, must be more taxed on the gains carried out, in particular thanks to the sale of actions, but also by simple detention, stresses the Organization.

/Media reports cited above.