That’s very good news.
As described in an announcement by the Spanish government, the initiative aims to create coordination between governments on the taxation of high-net-worth individuals to ensure they are not shuffling money abroad to avoid proper taxation.
I would like to point out that billionaires have to have an incentive to stay in one country, if their wealth is going to be taxed in that country. I.e., billionaires can only do business in a country that they pay their fair share of taxes in.
They can move out of the country but they cannot move out of the world. An international wealth tax CAN be done, the only obstacle is mere political will.
And it must be said, the ability for the rich to take their assets and leave has been greatly over-stated, since much of it is in the form of land.
Extreme wealth must be taxxed, or we will all live in desperate poverty.
They can’t also move the assets that makes them rich. What’s Amazon going to do? Close business in Spain to avoid the taxes??
I’m not contradicting you, just writing down some further notes:
- There’s 3 important types of taxes: wealth tax, income tax, product tax. Wealth tax is paid annually as a share of total net worth, while income tax is paid as a share of profit/revenue/wages. Product tax is a tax on consumable products such as food or luxury items.
I think the best thing would be to increase wealth tax, and decrease income and product tax.
The reason for this is: Wealth tax taxes wealth-hoarding, i.e. wealth that is stalling and not contributing to economic flow, i.e. production or re-distribution. Income and product tax inhibit the economy and slow it down, but don’t actually prevent wealth hoarding: Even if a billionaire is faced with 50% income tax, it’d simply take them twice as long to accumulate the insane amount of wealth. Wealth tax counteracts that, by reducing the size of the pile of gold these billionaires sit on effectively.
That being said, there’s 3 main types of wealth:
- real estate (land, agricultural fields, houses, …)
- infrastructure & business (streets, vehicles, factories, shops)
- abstract values, such as money, expensive paintings, gold, which have no direct inherent value and only possess value because of our communal perception of things.
Some of these things can be moved easily, such as money, while other things can basically not be moved at all, such as real estate & infrastructure. It makes sense to tax the things most that are hardest to move, i guess.
Exactly. Humanity will not survive like this. I have no problem with somebody building a successful business and making a few millions, but excessive wealth hording needs to stop. These people are holding essential resources of our planet hostage, while billions suffer.
the only obstacle is mere political will.
That’s a pretty fucking big obstacle. This can only be done if all countries agree to it so with the growing number of countries taken over by right wing governments it’s basically impossible. Even the Spanish government that proposed this has its days counted. This is a nice PR move, not a realistic proposal.
Every major political event in history was once an unrealistic proposal. Whether it can happen next week or not has absolutely no bearing on the fact that it must be done.
Reach out to your local political rep and tell them you support a wealth tax. Reach out to your local boomer FB page and tell them you support a wealth tax. Make the case. If public opinion and political opinion isn’t there then there is work to do. Put away minor nit picks and technical problems, they absolutely do not matter in the grand scheme of things. Build the momentum, tax the damn rich.
Whether it can happen next week or not has absolutely no bearing on the fact that it must be done.
The fact that it must be done does not mean that it will be done. Of course you can hope that in some not-so-distant future we’ll get there (I sure hope so) but as of now US, Russia, Middle East and parts of EU will not only not support it but will actively fight against it. Calling local reps and posting on FB will not change that. It’s not a technical problem, it’s reality. It’s fine to express your support for the idea but it’s also fine to be realistic about its chances.
While I despise the current Spanish government for being interested only in being in power (progressive here. They just lack a moral compass), if this comes to fruition it will be hard for conservatives to roll back. It would expose how tight a leash the oligarchs have on them.
An international wealth tax CAN be done, the only obstacle is mere political will.
There is real issues that need to be tackled, such as Ireland’s tax desert. There’s a couple of them around the world (around 20 countries do this iirc). I guess forcing them to close their tax deserts is difficult, because you’d either have to pressure them militarily or economically. Pressuring them militarily is a no-go in today’s time, and pressuring them economically might be challenging as these tax deserts could make a huge profit by offering lower taxes, and then taxing all the world’s rich, as they all move there.
I think the best course of action would be to exclude billionaires who do not pay a minimum amount of taxes in any country entrance to the domestic market, as they do not see themselves as a part of society, as they deny paying their fair share towards society, it’s fair to not let them participate in other parts of the society as well, such as doing business in your country. Business opportunity is a huge deal and very attractive for billionaires, who want to make even more money, so using that as leverage is very effective, i guess.
In other words, markets must be obstructed for investors who don’t pay their fair share in taxes.
Can you explain the significance of your xx in taxxed?
I really like the “grotesquely” descriptor. It fits a lot better than just “ultra wealthy” which doesn’t have the negative connotation it should
Agreed! I plan on using “the grotesquely wealthy” from now on, it conveys my visceral opinion of them.
Rich and Super rich politicians claim to plan taxing the super super rich that pay for their campaigns, NGOs, and the media that gets them elected, attempting to capitalize off the Zeitgeist.
Excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.
he looks like one of those banker goblins from harry potter wearing a human disguise
Those banker goblins were a bit of a jew face.
Bezos just looks like terrible rich person.
Isn’t Spain’s left-wing government on the ropes with a corruption scandal, and likely to be replaced by a hard-right government soon?
