Summary
Oxfam’s 2024 inequality report revealed a record $2 trillion increase in billionaire wealth, reaching $15 trillion, while global poverty rates remain stagnant.
The top 1% own 45% of all wealth, and 44% of people live on less than $6.85 daily.
Oxfam predicts five trillionaires within a decade, citing inheritance and cronyism as key wealth drivers. Elon Musk may become the first trillionaire by 2027.
Oxfam calls for tax reform, monopoly regulation, and income redistribution to address inequality.
Critics warn unchecked wealth concentration threatens democracy and economic fairness.
I mean, the issue is getting all nations to agree to that and making any agreement binding because otherwise the nation that decides to tax them at 98% gets all of the tax revenue…
98% of… what? Billionaires don’t get a paycheck like working people. They’re already sitting on all that wealth! If they spend money, it’s buying something once like a football team or Twitter and waiting until the value goes up before selling it. Same thing with stocks. And those realized gains are taxed lower than payroll taxes. They even take out unneeded loans like Trump just to avoid paying taxes! There’s a reason people say the rich pay less taxes than us…
I’d be fine with just taking them out of the entire system. Like I said, let them live in a place like Haiti if they want to be rich and keep them out of the rest of our lives. Let them build themselves a Dracula castle in Port-au-Prince.
They’re not going to go to Haiti though, they’re going to go to Monaco or Switzerland or Ireland or The Netherlands. That’s my point, for this to work all of the “developed” nations need to agree despite having a massive financial incentive not to.
Why would they have an incentive not to tax 99% of their wealth when that money would literally be going to them?
Because, as I said, if they instead tax 98% of their wealth then all the billionaires will move there and they’ll get 98% of a lot more while everyone else gets 99% of nothing. Until a country works out they could get 97% of all that wealth to themselves and so on and so forth until you get down to the sort of tax levels we actually see. It’s just basic game theory in the end.