I’m writing this blog in a jetlagged state, having just returned from Europe. The trip started in Amsterdam where I had lunch with the most impressive Ingrid Robeyns, author of the book Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Her book makes a compelling case for limiting the amount of wealth any one person can accumulate.
Our next stop was Berlin, which was dark not just because of the weather but because one couldn’t help being reminded of similarities between the period leading up to Hitler’s reign and what we’re beginning to experience in the U.S. The common threads: excessive wealth, power and politicians not standing up to authoritarian rule. The playbook was the same as the powerful elite supported authoritarian rule as a way of protecting–even enhancing–their wealth, particularly as an antidote to the threats they saw in democracy, communism (akin to socialism here) and labor unions.
In Paris, the news was consumed with whether Macron’s government will survive the onslaught of the rightwing. Most interestingly, the elections looked like they might depend on whether Macron endorsed a very popular proposed 2% wealth tax (dubbed the “Zucman wealth tax”, named for Gabriel Zucman, the French and UC Berkeley professor whose work the tax is based on). Unfortunately, media attention is now focused on the theft of artworks from the Louvre.
We ended our trip in London where wealth inequality is not quite on the scale as in the U.S., but many groups are working on addressing it both in England and internationally. Patriotic Millionaires UK and the London School of Economics are working, with Robeyns’ help, to come up with an Extreme Wealth Line, similar to the World Bank’s Poverty Line.
The Extreme Wealth Center has been working on the assumption that $50 million is a reasonable definition of the New American Dream, where entrepreneurial incentive remains high, but it is not too much money to allow one to exert power over our democracy, our economy and our society.
Fifty million dollars is enough money to allow spending on most of life’s luxuries, you could have two homes, maybe three. You could fly first class, but you probably couldn’t own a jet, or even a share of one. You couldn’t own a mega yacht, but you could rent one for a two-week vacation.
One of the extravagances of the ultrawealthy is art, and this trip highlighted what could be two different approaches to the art market. I thought of the private collector’s home we visited in Berlin whose art was what one might call affordable art (pieces costing tens of thousands, not tens of millions). In London, museums are free, with tens of thousands of pieces of art on display for anyone interested to see. Unfortunately, support of the arts is paid for largely by taxing the middle and upper-middle classes, rather than the ultrarich. But imagine if by reining in extreme wealth, all that exorbitant art ends up in free museums, rather than peoples’ homes.
There is nothing, literally nothing, preventing us from creating a New American Dream– primarily by enacting a wealth tax–except for two things: politicians and the people who elect them. Last week EWC co-director and TGB (Tax the Greedy Billionaires) executive director Igor Volsky published an op-ed in The New Republic, “If Dems Won’t Tax Billionaires After This, What Are They Even Doing?” This must-read piece highlights the ripeness of taxing the ultrarich as a political issue.
Although I tried avoiding political discussion while in Europe, throughout the trip people would say, “Oh, are you from the U.S.?” and I would reply, “No, we’re from California,” and people immediately got the point. When I arrived home, California’s uniqueness was underscored with news that a 2026 ballot initiative has just been submitted that would place a one-time 5% wealth tax on billionaires to primarily fund healthcare shortfalls–especially important given that California is home to more than one in five of U.S. billionaires. This could be a giant first step in addressing the problems of extreme wealth. I wonder if Elon Musk, who resides in Texas now, will support the California initiative in order to cut down to size his competitors in the extreme wealth club?!