Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires call for higher taxes on super-rich [View all]
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
Link to LETTER - TIME TO WIN We must win back our future. Leaders at Davos, tax the super rich.
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