A group of millionaires have joined protests at the World Economic Forum’s business and political elite meeting in Davos, Switzerland, demanding that governments “tax us now” to address the widening gap between rich and poor.
The unlikely protesters, who describe themselves as “patriotic millionaires,” urged world leaders attending Sunday’s annual conference to immediately introduce new taxes on the wealthy in a bid to end the “cost-of-living scandal that… happening in multiple nations around the world”. .
The charity Oxfam recently said rising inequality could push up to 263 million more people into extreme poverty in 2022 and reverse decades of progress.
Phil White, a former management consultant and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, said: “As the rest of the world collapses under the weight of an economic crisis, billionaires and world leaders gather at this private compound to discuss turning points in history.
“It is outrageous that our political leaders are listening to those who have the most, those who know the least about the economic impact of this crisis and many of whom pay shamefully little in taxes. The only credible outcome of this conference is to tax the richest and tax us now. Tax the delegates visiting Davos 2022.”
The protest comes as it was revealed that the UK now has a record 177 billionaires with combined wealth of £653 billion.
At the same time, it is predicted that more than 250,000 British households will be left in squalor over the next year due to rising food and energy bills. That would bring the total number in extreme poverty to about 1.2 million unless the government acts to help the poorest families hit by the soaring energy prices, according to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR ).
Marlene Engelhorn, co-founder of the #taxmenow initiative, at a protest. Photo: Patriotic MillionairesMarlene Engelhorn, another “patriotic millionaire” at the protests, said the only solution to “gross inequality” was to require governments “to tax me, to tax the rich”.
Engelhorn, an heir to the founders of chemical company BASF who co-founded the #taxmenow initiative, said: “As someone who has enjoyed the benefits of wealth all my life, I know how distorted our economy is and I cannot keep doing Sit back and wait for someone, somewhere, to do something. I feel we have no choice but to act.
Sign up for the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
“Our governments continue to do nothing to address gross inequality, instead meeting behind closed doors in this spectacle of private wealth. We have reached the end of the road when another quarter billion people will be pushed into extreme poverty this year. It’s time to recalibrate the world. It is time to tax the rich.”
The theme of this year’s WEF meeting in Davos – the first face-to-face meeting in more than two years due to the pandemic – is “working together, restoring trust”.
Djaffar Shalchi, a Danish multi-millionaire engineer and real estate developer, said: “You don’t gain 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 could do to earn people’s trust is to recognize that the wealth and privilege they represent and protect are incompatible with a world where everyone lives a full and prosperous life can lead.”