People With Extreme Wealth Should Give It Away—or Be Penalized

In 2024, wealthiness attraction roseate to an all-time high. According to Forbes’ Billionaires List, not lone are determination much billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are besides richer than ever, with an aggregate worthy of $14.2 trillion. This is simply a inclination that looks acceptable to proceed unabated. A recent report from the fiscal information institution Altrata estimated that astir 1.2 cardinal individuals who are worthy much than $5 cardinal volition walk connected a corporate wealthiness of astir $31 trillion implicit the adjacent decade.

Discontentment and interest implicit the consequences of utmost wealthiness successful our nine is growing. Senator Bernie Sanders, for instance, stated that the “obscene level of income and wealthiness inequality successful America is simply a profoundly motivation issue.” In a joint op-ed for CNN successful 2023, Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee and Disney heiress Abigail Disney wrote that “extreme wealthiness inequality is simply a menace to our system and democracy.” In 2024, erstwhile the committee of Tesla enactment to ballot a $56 cardinal wage bundle for Elon Musk, immoderate large shareholders voted against it, declaring that specified a compensation level was “absurd” and “ridiculous.”

In 2025, the combat against rising wealthiness inequality volition beryllium precocious connected the governmental agenda. In July 2024, the G20—the world’s 20 biggest economies—agreed to enactment connected a connection by Brazil to present a caller planetary “billionaire tax” that would levy a 2 percent taxation connected assets worthy much than $1 billion. This would rise an estimated $250 cardinal a year. While this circumstantial connection was not endorsed successful the Rio declaration, the G20 countries agreed that the ace affluent should beryllium taxed more.

Progressive politicians won’t beryllium the lone ones trying to code this problem. In 2025, millionaires themselves volition progressively mobilize and enactment unit connected governmental leaders. One specified question is Patriotic Millionaires, a nonpartisan radical of multimillionaires who are already publically campaigning and privately lobbying the American Congress for a guaranteed surviving wage for all, a just taxation system, and the extortion of adjacent representation. “Millionaires and ample corporations—who person benefited astir from our country’s assets—should wage a larger percent of the tab for moving the country,” reads their worth statement. Members see Abigail Disney, erstwhile BlackRock enforcement Morris Pearl, ineligible student Lawrence Lessig, screenwriter Norman Lear, and capitalist Lawrence Benenson.

Another illustration is TaxMeNow, a lobby radical founded successful 2021 by young multimillionaires successful Germany, Austria, and Switzerland which besides advocates for higher wealthiness taxation. Its astir celebrated subordinate is the 32-year aged Marlene Engelhorn, descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, laminitis of German pharma elephantine BASF. She precocious acceptable up a assembly made up of 50 randomly selected Austrian citizens to determine what should hap to her €25 cardinal inheritance. “I person inherited a fortune, and truthful power, without having done thing for it,” she said successful a statement. “If politicians don’t bash their occupation and redistribute, past I person to redistribute my wealthiness myself.”

Earlier this year, Patriotic Millionaires, TaxMeNow, Oxfam, and different activistic radical called Millionaires For Humanity formed a conjugation called Proud to Pay More, and addressed a letter to planetary leaders during the yearly gathering of the World Economic Forum successful Davos. Signed by hundreds of high-net-worth individuals—including heiress Valerie Rockefeller, histrion Simon Pegg, and filmmaker Richard Curtis—the missive stated: “We each cognize that ‘trickle down economics’ has not translated into reality. Instead it has fixed america stagnating wages, crumbling infrastructure, failing nationalist services, and destabilized the precise instauration of democracy.” It concluded: “We inquire you to instrumentality this indispensable and inevitable measurement earlier it’s excessively late. Make your countries proud. Tax utmost wealth.” In 2025, acknowledgment to the nascent question of activistic millionaires, these calls volition turn adjacent louder.