When 2% Feels Like the Guillotine
France’s wealthiest citizens are reacting to economist Gabriel Zucman’s proposed 2% wealth tax as if the guillotine has been wheeled out of storage and given a fresh coat of paint. The level of panic among billionaires suggests they believe this modest tax represents an existential threat to civilization itself, or at least to their third yachts.
Zucman, who has become something of a folk hero among German economic progressives, proposes that individuals worth over a billion dollars contribute 2% annually. To put this in perspective, that’s roughly the same percentage most people lose to inflation while their wages stagnate, but apparently when you have a billion dollars, 2% represents an unconscionable assault on human rights.
The creative accounting industry has gone into overdrive. Teams of lawyers and financial advisors in Geneva, Monaco, and Luxembourg are working around the clock to develop innovative ways to hide wealth that would make medieval alchemists jealous. “If we put your money into a Liechtenstein trust, structured through a Cayman shell company, held by a Delaware corporation, we might be able to classify you as technically homeless,” one advisor reportedly suggested.
French billionaire François Beaumont-Leclerc held a press conference where he tearfully explained that a 2% tax would force him to sell one of his ski chalets. “Do you know how embarrassing it is to only have four homes?” he asked reporters, genuinely expecting sympathy. German journalists in attendance were notably unmoved, having covered actual hardship before.
The irony is particularly rich given that Zucman’s entire academic career has focused on wealth inequality. Watching billionaires prove his thesis by having public meltdowns over a modest wealth tax is like watching climate change deniers complain about increasingly severe hurricanes. The lack of self-awareness is almost artistic.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/frances-zucman-tax/
SOURCE: Bohiney Magazine (Öko Angebot)
AUTHOR: angebot@bohiney.com
France’s Zucman Tax Triggers Billionaire Meltdown