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

In 2024, wealth concentration will reach an all-time high. According to Forbes Billionaires ListNot only are there more billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are wealthier than ever, with a combined net worth of $14.2 trillion. It’s a trend that seems set to continue unabated. A Recent reports Financial information firm Ultrata estimates that the roughly 1.2 million individuals worth more than $5 million will have a collective wealth of nearly $31 trillion over the next decade.

There is growing discontent and concern about the consequences of extreme wealth in our society. Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, said that “The obscene level of income and wealth inequality in America is a profound moral problem.“A Joint op-ed for CNN In 2023, Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Disney heiress Abigail Disney wrote that “extreme wealth inequality is a threat to our economy and democracy.” In 2024, when Tesla’s board voted on a $56 billion pay package for Elon Musk, some major shareholders voted against it, declaring that such compensation levels were “unreasonable” and “funny“

In 2025, the fight against growing wealth inequality will be high on the political agenda. In July 2024, the G20 – the world’s 20 largest economies – agreed to work on a Brazilian proposal to introduce a new global “The billionaire taxThat would impose a 2 percent tax on assets worth more than $1 billion. It would raise an estimated $250 billion a year. Although this specific proposal was not endorsed in the Rio Declaration, the G20 countries agreed That the super rich should be taxed more.

Progressive politicians are not the only ones trying to solve this problem. In 2025, millionaires themselves will increasingly mobilize and put pressure on political leaders. One such movement Patriot millionaireA nonpartisan group of multimillionaires who are already publicly campaigning and privately lobbying the American Congress to protect a guaranteed living wage for all, a fair tax system, and equal representation. “Billionaires and big corporations — who have benefited the most from our nation’s wealth — must pay a larger percentage of the tab to run their country.,” reads their value statement. Members include Abigail Disney, former BlackRock executive Maurice Pearl, lawyer Lawrence Lessig, screenwriter Norman Lear, and investor Lawrence Benenson.

Another example is TaxMeNowA lobby group founded in 2021 by young multi-millionaires from Germany, Austria and Switzerland that also advocates higher wealth taxation. Its most famous member is 32-year-old Marlene Engelhorn, a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, the founder of German pharma giant BASF. He recently formed a council of 50 randomly selected Austrian citizens to decide what to do with his €25 million inheritance. “I inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without doing anything for it,” he said in a statement. “If the politicians don’t do their job and redistribute, I have to redistribute my wealth.”

Earlier this year, Patriotic Millionaires, TaxMeNow, Oxfam and another activist group Millionaire for Humanity Formed a coalition called Proud to Pay More, and addressed a letter to world leaders during the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The letter, signed by hundreds of high-net-worth individuals, including heiress Valerie Rockefeller, actor Simon Pegg and filmmaker Richard Curtis, said: “We all know that ‘trickle down economics’ has not translated into reality. Instead it has given us stagnant wages, broken infrastructure, failed public services and destabilized the institutions of democracy.” It concluded: “We ask you to take this necessary and inevitable step before it is too late. Make your country proud. Taxes are extreme wealth.” In 2025, thanks to a new movement of activist millionaires, these calls will grow louder.