“The world leaders who are meeting in Davos these days face a dilemma: put the interests of elites and billionaires who take excessive advantage of this economic model first, or take courageous measures in defense of the vast majority of citizens. A trial by fire? We will see if the governments finally apply common sense and decide, for example, to further tax the wealth of billionaires,” said Íñigo Macías, head of research at Oxfam Intermón.
The NGO Oxfam asked to tax “urgently” the great fortunes of the planet, in a report published to coincide with the Davos forum, and warned that the poorest are suffering more and more from inflation. “Billionaires flock to Davos to celebrate incredible rise in their fortunes“said Gabriela Bucher, the executive director of the international organization in a statement.
According to her, “the pandemic and now the sharp rises in food and energy prices have simply been a stroke of luck for them.” Oxfam bases its figures on Forbes magazine’s ranking of the world’s richest people and World Bank data.
“We are reversing decades of progress on extreme poverty, with millions of people facing impossible costs just to stay alive,” Bucher said.
To deal with this problem, the NGO calls for various tax measures, including a single solidarity tax on the new wealth acquired by billionaires during the pandemic, with the aim of using the resources obtained to support the poorest and achieve “a fair and sustainable recovery” after the pandemic.
It also proposes a temporary tax on extraordinary profits obtained in recent years by multinationals in the food, pharmaceutical and oil sectors, for example.
An annual tax of 2% on millionaires and 5% on billionaires would generate $2.52 billion a yearaccording to the organization’s calculations, a sum that could lift 2.3 billion people out of extreme poverty, distribute enough vaccines for the entire planet and provide all poor countries with health coverage.
Source: Ambito
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