World’s wealthiest urge higher taxation on super-rich in open letter

Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from around the globe have signed an open letter calling for higher taxes on the super-rich, timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Coordinated by several British and international non-profit organizations, the letter urges elected representatives to confront what it describes as an existential global crisis driven by extreme wealth concentration. “When even millionaires, like us, recognise that extreme wealth has cost everyone else everything else, there can be no doubt that society is dangerously teetering off the edge of a precipice. We are worn out watching this happen. We want our democracies back. We want our communities back. We want our future back,” the letter states.

Patriotic Millionaires, a network of wealthy people in the UK who have long campaigned to be taxed more and acting as one of the initiators of the letter, conducted polling among 3,900 millionaires in G20 countries. It found widespread concern about the political influence of the ultra-wealthy, as highlighted in an article by British media outlet The Independent.

According to the survey, 77 per cent believe extremely wealthy individuals buy political influence, 69 per cent say the influence of the super-rich over politicians is blocking action on inequality, and 62 per cent think extreme wealth poses a threat to democracy.

The statement has been signed by a number of high-profile figures, including Oscar-nominated US actor Mark Ruffalo, musician Brian Eno, members of the Disney family and German industrialist Ise Bosch and hundreds of others from countries such as the UK, US, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany and more.

The signatories warn that excessive wealth accumulation is having a corrosive effect on societies worldwide. Citing reports that the richest 1 per cent of people own more wealth than the remaining 95 per cent of the global population combined, the letter calls on global leaders to act decisively to reverse the widening gap. “A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet,” it says.

The UK is highlighted as a stark example of the trend. British media reports show the wealth gap has widened by 50 per cent over the past eight years, with the country ranking seventh among OECD nations for income inequality. The UK’s 50 richest families now hold more wealth than the poorest half of the population — around 34 million people — while the country’s two richest billionaires are wealthier than the entire Sunday Times Rich List was in 1990. A recent report from the Fairness Foundation warned that rising wealth inequality in the UK could become a “major driver of societal collapse” within the next decade.

Takers Not Makers, a 2025 report generated by Oxfam International, the renowned British chairty consortium which is another co-organizer of this promotion, found that billionaires increased their wealth three times faster in 2024 than in 2023, pointing to an accelerating global concentration of resources.

Patriotic Millionaires says its research shows that 80 per cent of millionaires support a 2 per cent wealth tax on assets above £10m. The group says its aim is to “leverage the voice of wealth to build a better Britain by changing the system to end extreme wealth and make those with it make their fair and proper contribution.”

Psychology behind how societies treat wealth

Alongside the economic arguments, the debate has also taken on a psychological dimension. The concept of “wealth shame” — a sense of discomfort or guilt associated with having money — has gained attention in recent years.

Christine Hargrove, president of the Financial Therapy Association, says she has seen a rise in wealthy clients struggling with the issue. “Many of them feel like they have to hide money-related aspects of their past or present, otherwise they’ll be on the front lines of the class war,” she says. “We have a lot of ways we talk about money that contradict each other – for example, we hold up passing down wealth to future generations as an important indicator of having ‘made it’ financially, but talk about individuals who inherit wealth with disdain.” She adds that such contradictions “wreak havoc on individuals’ inner financial identities.”

Angel Investor Julia Davies associated with Osprey is another voice in the debate, who argues that it is “not about being embarrassed about having wealth if you’ve worked hard for it, or your parents have worked hard for it.” However, she says the scale of inequality should prompt those at the top to feel uncomfortable about hoarding wealth rather than using it to improve society.

By Nazrin Sadigova