We need taxes for all - also the super-rich.
“Tax the rich” is an official EU petition. The EU Parliament has to deal with it when successful.
7 EU countries must reach the quorum. And in total 1M Votes are needed. Check yours in the chart and share, cross post etc.!
The petition calls for the introduction of a wealth tax on very large fortunes. Sign the petition here
Again, I’m not against this initiative in it’s entirety. I’m just remarking it doesn’t tackle the real problem. And to answer your question, having savings around a million euros isn’t weird for western Europeans. The standard of living here is fairly high. The average starter home is around 400k euros where I live. Meaning regular 4 people family homes are almost double that. Again. I’m not against this proposal. But it’s just populist pandering. Most people just read the title and go “yeah eat the rich”. I know Paul Magnette. I’d never vote for him cause he’s not a sincere politician. He’s a populist. It’s the modern political disease, they’re all populists. No one is honest anymore. They’re all there in your face just to get votes. This proposal is nothing more than a simple ad and power grab. I wish it were different. I really do. The real problem is that no one who works for someone else earns their fair share. Corrupt governments won’t solve this.
Thanks for the context. And I have no idea who Paul Magnette is so I’ll take your word for it.
I think your point about cost of family homes makes sense. If that is the case it might need an adjustment.
I have no experience with economic systems, but I wonder what the effect on home prices would be if taxed at the levels proposed. My hunch would be that home prices would decrease. The risk is of course that families with less financial means that borrowed money to afford a home will loose money.
Regardless, the main problem is extreme wealth disparity. My question is mainly, are the home prices high because wealth is high?
I dont know where this OP is living but having a million Euros in savings is definitely NOT normal, nor is it “middle-class”. Yes the houses can cost that much, most are mortgaged and the owners saddles with half a million in debt, desperately hoping for the prices to rise to make a profit. And there’s a significant housing shortage in several western euro countries too.
Rich people usually dont have their wealth laying around on a savings account, but rather own shares of a company or property or something else, but not cash. If you’re lucky and bought a house in a metropolitan area a few decades ago, it’s also not unlikely that you’re a millionaire on paper with a normal middle class income. Just having double the income of the average isn’t that absurd, some people just earn a little more than others. The real issue is waaaaay above this level of wealth. Not the 60y/o guy who has a few hundred thousand in his pension savings.