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‘Morally, nobody’s against it’: Brazil’s radical plan to tax global super-rich to tackle climate crisis
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
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OK so it's time to say the quiet part out loud: the reason that governments have so far held off on taxing billionaires at 1% or 2% is the fear that they might spend 2% or 3% against those governments in revenge.
Billionaires, as a class, are likely already spending that much or more on lobbying for lower taxes. Or really lobbying for the status quo, since existing loopholes allow them to achieve an ultra low or even 0% effective tax with alarming regularity. The threat they make is wealth flight. "If you raise our taxes we'll take all our wealth somewhere else!" As a result taxes on the ultrarich have essentially been a global race to the bottom for decades. At least now there finally seems to be some indications that wealth inequality cannot be ignored the way it has been for so long. My hope is that we'll eventually see some international framework that effectively raise the tax floor for the 1%. It won't cover every nation, but if it encompasses the EU, US, Commonwealth and other aligned countries then that would go a long way.
And what Billionaire wants to live in a shit-hole country? If governments are committed, they can find a way. Oh, you want to travel to the EU? What a shame that the visa process requires some transparency...
That's exactly it. If affluent countries can get on the same page, they can neutralize the "wealth flight" argument and we can start shifting the balance back toward something that remotely resembles equality.
It's always been a fallacy that the rich can remove their money from all developed economies and still remain rich. Also, if billionaires are taxed until they're no longer billionaires, that money hasn't disappeared, it's been recycled.
And there's a fundamental series of questions under all this: who elected billionaires? Who benefits from their continuing to be billionaires? What are the costs? How can we fire them?
The ancient Athenians would vote to expropriate and exile the rich if they weren't working in the interests of the polis (cutting deals with enemy states, interfering in politics, corruption). Perhaps Western countries should all pass laws that a limited number of referenda can be held annually to make a similar disposition of the modern ultra-rich?
If you want to insure yourself against capital flight go for a Land Value Tax. Let 'em shove a hectare of land in their luggage.
Georgism was rejected as unworkable in Victorian times. What has changed to make it workable now?