Brazil, Germany, Spain and South Africa sign motion for fairer tax system to deliver £250bn a year extra to fight poverty and climate crisis

The world’s 3,000 billionaires should pay a minimum 2% tax on their fast-growing wealth to raise £250bn a year for the global fight against poverty, inequality and global heating, ministers from four leading economies have suggested.

In a sign of growing international support for a levy on the super-rich, Brazil, Germany, South Africa and Spain say a 2% tax would reduce inequality and raise much-needed public funds after the economic shocks of the pandemic, the climate crisis and military conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.

They are calling for more countries to join their campaign, saying the annual sum raised would be enough to cover the estimated cost of damage caused by all of last year’s extreme weather events.

“It is time that the international community gets serious about tackling inequality and financing global public goods,” the ministers say in a Guardian comment piece.

  • @[email protected]
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    897 months ago

    Uh, why not 99%, and you get a framed certificate congratulating you for winning capitalism?

    • @Zehzin
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      447 months ago

      When you get to 1 billion your wealth resets but you get exclusive skins

      • @YourAvgMortal
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        87 months ago

        So they’ll be playing on a higher difficulty?

        • @Zehzin
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          7 months ago

          Same difficulty everyone else plays, which yeah it’s a lot higher than theirs

    • @Viking_Hippie
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      137 months ago

      100% on all wealth above, say, a quarter of a billion dollars and all income that would bring you above that threshold.

      • @[email protected]
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        307 months ago

        Nah dude. If they hit a billion dollars, you take all their wealth, reset them back to level one, put a star next to their name and tell them to do it again. They’ll appreciate the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with a second run.

        • @Viking_Hippie
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          57 months ago

          Sorta like New Game Plus but without the plus? I like it!

          • @[email protected]
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            47 months ago

            It’d be hilarious to hear shit heels like Elon Musk talk about how they “earned” their wealth and then be completely unable to do it again.

    • @[email protected]
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      17 months ago

      I’m kinda happy with 75%, maybe we could bump it up to 90 or so but at 75% wealth and revenue taxation billionaires would need to multiply their pot by 16x every year to maintain their wealth… that’s pretty unrealistic do everyone north of a billion would quickly trend to a billion - that number should ideally be lower (I think ten million or a number like that is a perfectly reasonable effective wealth cap) but that was the reference in the article.