Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said he wants ultra-rich to pay more taxes, this a year after his remark during his ‘Ask Me Anything’ forum on Reddit wherein he expressed surprise that the taxes for the rich had not been increased more.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gates said that the wealthiest countries should donate more money to the developing countries, a move aimed at helping redress inequality.
ALSO READ: How reading helped billionaire Bill Gates become a philanthropist
More than 250 ultra-rich people signed an open letter calling for the global leaders to impose a wealth tax, Business Insider reported. Gates, currently the fourth richest person on the planet as per the Bloomberg index, said the countries, companies or individuals who have the most wealth should be pushed to become more generous. The Microsoft co-founder has a fortune of $141 billion as per Bloomberg.
ALSO READ: Bill Gates flew in ‘economy’ for many years, Netflix co-founder reveals reason
The open letter signed by the likes of Abigail Disney, ‘Succession’ actor Brian Cox has appealed to the global leaders to tax them more, adding that imposing taxes on the super-wealthy will not deprive their children or alter their standard of living.
Warning of the dramatic rise of economic inequality, the letter urged the elected representatives of the world’s leading economies to take steps to address the issue or ‘consequences will continue to be catastrophic for society’.
Alongside the open letter, a report put together by Oxfam, Patriotic Millionaires, Patriotic Millionaires UK, Millionaires for Humanity and TaxMeNow was released. Disney in her note wrote that she was ‘wrong’ in flying alone on her family’s private Boeing 737 on trips from California to New York.
Abigail Disney further said she has now given up flying private and also made other adjustments to her route for protecting the environment. The Disney heiress also blamed the wealthy 1 per cent for contributing to climate change due to their ‘private jets’, gas-guzzling hot rods, superyachts, choppers and private space rockets.
