Why a wealth tax for the super-rich is urgently needed: A plea from 7 Nobel laureates.
The rich are getting richer
The proposal of the seven Nobel laureates - they themselves explain - does not aim at a policy of "equality" but simply to gradually reduce the inequalities that have increased disproportionately in recent years.
The OECD (the organization of the 38 most developed Western and capitalist countries) has provided wage data. We might have expected it: we're the worst performers. Last. Many countries have seen an increase in the purchasing power of wages over the last four years, some have seen significant reductions, between zero and 4 percent ( Australia has seen a 4 percent reduction), but none have come close to the 7.5 percent drop in Italian wages. Giorgia Meloni rarely talks about this problem. And she runs away, far away, when someone proposes a minimum wage of 9 euros an hour , which would still be one of the lowest in Europe. Giorgia Meloni retorts by saying that employment in Italy is soaring.
Is it true? Here are the OECD data. Employment in Italy is rising only among those over fifty, particularly among retirees. The unemployment rate in Italy is 6.5 percent, much higher than the European average of 4.9 percent. The employment rate, however, is 63 percent, compared to the European average of 70 percent. Let's say that even in terms of employment (driven by low wages and the reduction in labor costs accompanied by growing profits), we are at the bottom of the rankings. What does this mean? Two things. That in Italy, even more than in other capitalist Western countries, there exists a gigantic problem of excessive social inequality. And that wealth is distributed insanely, that is, in such a way as to make the area of poverty and near-poverty ever wider. Therefore, measures such as a minimum wage and a tax reform that shifts significant resources to the lower rungs of the social ladder are essential. And the proposal for a "wealth" tax fits squarely into this reasoning . What does it consist of? By introducing a tax on large fortunes, or rather, on large and medium-sized fortunes. Because this is the only way to truly tax wealth.
A few days ago, Le Monde published an appeal launched by seven American and French Nobel laureates: Daron Acemoglu (MIT, 2024 Nobel Prize), George Akerlof (Georgetown University, 2001 Nobel Prize), Abhijit Banerjee (MIT, 2019 Nobel Prize) , Esther Duflo (Collège de France and MIT, 2019 Nobel Prize), Simon Johnson (MIT, 2024 Nobel Prize), Paul Krugman (CUNY, 2008 Nobel Prize), and Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia, 2001 Nobel Prize). The appeal notes that billionaires around the world pay negligible taxes compared to the size of their wealth. The rate varies from 0.1 percent for French billionaires to 0.6 percent for American billionaires. Billionaires are defined as people with a net worth of more than €100 million. In France , this figure is approximately 1,800. The Nobel Prize winners' appeal calls for the introduction of a wealth tax. It endorses the proposal of a young economist , Gabriel Zucman , who has called for the introduction of a 2 percent wealth tax. If this tax were applied only to those with more than €100 million, France could reasonably raise around €5 billion annually. If the tax were then extended, for example, to those with a wealth of more than €10 million, this figure could be doubled or tripled. Currently, these French billionaires pay approximately €100,000 in taxes annually.
The proposal of the seven Nobel laureates—they themselves explain—does not aim for a policy of "equality" but simply to gradually reduce the inequalities that have increased disproportionately in recent years . It aims to curb the continued upward drain of wealth. Today, if you try to discuss a wealth tax or a minimum wage in Italy, you're considered a dangerous extremist and certainly a utopian. And it's the same in America. In America , Trump even had Parliament approve a reform that reduces taxes for the rich , especially billionaires, and is financing this measure by cutting healthcare for approximately 15 million poor people. Yet the Nobel laureates themselves explain that their analysis and proposal do not respond to a leftist ideal. They simply respond to common sense. Will the Italian left be able to adopt these common-sense positions? And explain that reformism—moderate reformism—is that of the American and French Nobel laureates, and not the reactionary proposals of Trump, or those of those who want a flat tax in Italy, meaning the rich pay the same taxes as the poor (in defiance of the Constitution), or those who think that liberalism—true liberalism—simply means protecting the richest?
l'Unità
