A group of millionaires have joined the protests against the World Economic Forum’s gathering of business and political elites in DavosSwitzerland, asking governments to “tax us now” to address the growing gap between rich and poor.
Potential protesters, who describe themselves as “National Millionaires”World leaders attending the annual conference on Sunday called for immediate new taxes on the wealthy in order to tackle the “cost of living scandal taking place in multiple countries around the world.”
The charity Oxfam recently said that rising inequality could push up to 263 million people into extreme poverty in 2022, reflecting decades of progress.
Phil White, former business advisor and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK said: “As the world collapses under the weight of an economic crisis, billionaires and world leaders meet at this private pool to discuss turning points in history.
“It is a disgrace that our political leaders listen to those who have the most, know so little about the economic impact of this crisis, and so many of them pay notoriously little taxes. The only reliable outcome from this conference is to tax the rich and tax us now.” Taxation of delegates present Davos 2022. “
Come protest where the presence is now revealed Record 177 billionaires in the UKWith a combined fortune of £653 billion.
At the same time, more than 250,000 households in the UK are expected to slip into extreme poverty next year due to rising food and energy bills. This will raise the total number of people living in extreme poverty to about 1.2 million, unless the government works to help the poorest families affected by the massive rise in energy prices, According to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR).
Marilyn Engelhorn, another “national millionaire” at the protest, said the only solution to “gross inequality” was to demand that governments “tax the rich”.
“As someone who has enjoyed the benefits of wealth my whole life, I know how skewed our economy is and I can’t keep sitting and waiting for someone, somewhere, to do something,” said Engelhorn, heir to the BASF chemical co-founders, who co-founded the #taxmenow initiative. We were left with no choice but to take action.
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“Our governments continue to do nothing to tackle massive inequality and instead converge behind closed doors in this spectacle of private wealth. We have come to the end of the line when another quarter of a billion people will be pushed into extreme poverty this year. It is time to rebalance the world. Time to tax the rich.”
The theme of this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos – the first in-person in more than two years, due to the pandemic – is “Working together, restoring confidence”.
Jaffer Shalchi, a Danish architect and real estate developer, said: “You don’t earn people’s trust by holding events like Davos, where the world’s rich and powerful meet behind layers of security. The most important thing Davos participants can do to earn people’s trust is to recognize that the wealth and privilege they represent and protect him, is incompatible with a world in which everyone can lead a full and prosperous life.”
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