Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Tue 20 Jan 2026 19.01 EST


Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries are calling on global leaders to increase taxes on the super-rich, amid growing concern that the wealthiest in society are buying political influence. An open letter, released to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, calls on global leaders attending this week’s conference to close the widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

The letter, signed by luminaries including the actor and film-maker Mark Ruffalo, the musician Brian Eno and the film producer and philanthropist Abigail Disney, says extreme wealth is polluting politics, driving social exclusion and fuelling the climate emergency.

“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 reads. “What we treasure, rich and poor alike, is being eaten away by those intent on growing the gulf between their vast power and everyone else.

“We all know this. 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.” According to Forbes, Donald Trump assembled the richest cabinet in US history last year after being re-elected as president, with an estimated joint worth last August of $7.5bn (£5.6bn).

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/21/millionaires-billionaires-taxes-super-rich-mark-ruffalo-wef-davos

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Link to LETTER - TIME TO WIN We must win back our future. Leaders at Davos, tax the super rich.

[littlemissmartypants]

1. You're on a roll this morning! Woo hoo! ❤️🌞

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Some days are like that

It's literally "feast or famine"!

[wolfie001]

3. They also should be calling for the fat orange imbecile's impeachment

But this is a start.

[Layzeebeaver]

4. No one is stopping them from paying anyway.

It’s easy for one group of them to say it, when there’s another group of them in the whitehouse lobbying against it.

[yardwork]

5. I don't think it's that simple.

What I see is people in all income brackets speaking up against the problem. Some of the ultra-wealthy are buying political influence (let's be direct, they're buying governments).

Many people, including some of those who are very wealthy, recognize that this is a direct threat to democracy. It is a threat to all of us.

Just being a billionaire isn't going to protect somebody from the madness and chaos that some billionaires are unleashing.

This is a war between good and evil, not the rich vs. the not rich.

[Layzeebeaver]

6. I agree

It’s just that three are other dynamics at play as well… including how it’s being spun

[yardwork]

7. Agreed. The wealthy always have more power than the rest of us.

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. But, it is not 'the rich agains the non-rich'.

Right.

[yardwork]

9. We can't win this unless a lot of wealthy people join our side.

Yes, they will take credit and get more than they deserve, but even many of them recognize that if this continues we all lose.

We're headed for a dystopian future that is terrifying to contemplate. Smart people in all income brackets see that.

[OldBaldy1701E]

12. The highest 'income bracket' caused all of this.

But let's bow to them again, shall we?

We can't win this unless the people who caused it are on our side?

How is that going to work? They caused this. You want to let them keep control over all of this??

Just what kind of magical powers do you think the rich have that they should receive such favoritism? Other than super-greed and super ego, that is.

One billionaire could wipe out hunger and homelessness in this country and still be a billionaire. ONE. Not one has made that attempt. Why haven't they, if there are some 'good ones' out there?

We are not 'heading towards' a dystopian future. We are in one. One created by the rich, by their excesses and insatiable greed, to control everything and destroy that which they cannot control.

I'm sorry, but you are betting on the wrong horse. I know that is my 'little' opinion, and I am sure plenty think I am crazy. Whatever.

We will see, won't we? I mean, assuming that we are around to see, and assuming that there is anything left to see.

[JudyM]

13. This. Buying governments.

And buying up limited resources. Look who's buying up property in Greenland now to plunder natural resources. It's a free-for-all with no rules except their own morality.

[Be The Light]

10. Not to mention

it's about to crash the economy horrifically!

[Clouds Passing]

11. If they quit cheating on their taxes at the usual habit. Just saying