Hey, guys. Thank you for using our service. Dear distinguished panelists and participants, it is a pleasure to be with you.
I'm here on behalf of a strong and growing network of billionaires around the world. They use their public voices and personal influence to sound the alarm about the threat posed by the concentration of wealth and power in the world's billionaire class.
We have Patriotic Billionaires chapters in the US and UK, and over the past three years nearly 1,000 billionaires from around the world have joined us in calling on governments to tax extreme wealth.
To be clear, this is not an act of kindness or charity. It's for our own benefit. The far right is on the rise around the world. If we do not address the twin crises of wealth concentration and inequality, we will face a total dismantling and eventual death of liberal democracy, justice, and fundamental human freedoms over the next decade. You will have to face it.
Let me be clear: we are no more altruistic than others. We're just greedy for a different kind of world than many other wealthy people. Extreme wealth and extreme poverty are on the rise. Tax rates on the super-rich have collapsed around the world. Over the past decade, the richest 1% of people have captured half of all new wealth, but that's not because they're twice as talented as the rest of the world. there is no. That's how the system is designed.
Since 2020, five billionaires have doubled their wealth, while the world's poorest 5 billion people have become even poorer. Children are starving while billionaires fly rockets into space.
You may not care about how much money someone has, but you may care about how much power someone has. Too much money and too much power threatens us all.
The frog trusted the scorpion. He carried the scorpion across the river, and the scorpion killed the frog. On behalf of 1,000 billionaires around the world, please don't make the same mistake.
There are no benevolent billionaires. There are no public-minded plutocrats. We can and should ask how we tax the wealthy. We can and should ask the rich how much to tax. But in addition to these questions, we must also ask ourselves the most important question: “What would happen if we didn’t tax extreme wealth?”
That won't end well for anyone, including billionaires. The only way to protect the chances of freedom and democracy, and to save the planet and humanity, is to tax extreme wealth before it's too late.
Yes, the calculations may be a little complicated. I believe you all can understand that. The principle itself is not complicated.
Take taxes from the rich. Save the world. It's that simple. thank you.
