The gap between rich and poor - Millionaires calling for wealth tax | DW Documentary

A fresh wind is blowing as I meet Julia and Rob at Wild Woodbury. Itís a huge piece of farmland in southern England thatís being returned to nature, thanks to Julia. OK, so this is the land. Can we see more of it? Yeah, letís have a walk and take a look. Julia Davies is a multimillionaire with a passion for nature. Her extreme wealth came when she sold her stake in outdoor equipment company Osprey Europe a few years ago. She canít understand why her wealth is not being taxed. Sheís part of Patri

otic Millionaires, a coalition of the super-rich calling for a tax on extreme wealth. They make their case in open letters to their respective governments. In a time of increasing inequality, they say: The solution is plain for all to see. You, our global representatives, have to tax us, the ultra-rich. and you have to start now. Tax the ultra rich and do it now. This letter was signed by more than 200 millionaires and billionaires worldwide. What, or who is stopping you? Through my work with Pa

triotic Millionaires, we work to try to address extreme wealth inequality because thatís part of the problem. Part of the problem is that we have concentrated wealth, money in the hands of a smaller and smaller group of people and unfortunately those with most wealth are the ones who are consuming our resources in the world in the most extreme way, excessive, extreme way. Of course theyíve got to fly around the world in private jets, of course theyíve got to buy themselves a massive superyacht i

f theyíve got the money to do it. For too long we have idealized this lifestyle. And we are all paying the price for their lifestyles and the natural worldís paying that price as well. And for me, Iím absolutely heartbroken by what weíve already allowed to happen to our natural world. And Iím determined to do what I can, the little bit that I can do with my money to try and do something about it. To combat the loss of biodiversity, Julia paid nearly 5 million Euros to buy this farmland, not for

herself, but the British Wildlife Trust. It was an interest-free loan, which allows for many more like it. I came up with the idea of lending them the money so that they could buy sites like this and then once theyíve got the land it enables them to get the funding from other sources to pay me back which means I can then do another project. The loan has since been repaid and more land purchased for rewilding. Julia says a wealth tax would give the government funds to tackle the climate emergency

, inequality and Britainís cost of living crisis. The wealthiest in society are paying lower over all levels of wealth, proportionate levels of wealth, than people who are working for a living, using their labour to earn money. The wealthiest in society they get their money from their wealth. And theyíre not being taxed on that in any way like the degree to which people who are working are getting taxed. That means less money coming into the public funds to invest in doing things like repairing

our schools, maintaining our NHS, which is unfortunately grossly under-resourced right now. So weíve proposed looking at a wealth tax on wealth above 10 million pounds of maybe 1 or 2%. And I can assure you that wealthy people can afford to pay that without impacting their lifestyle whatsoever. So you don't have a problem to lose a part of your wealth by taxation? I donít see it as losing a part of my wealth, I see it as investing in public wealth. One: I think itís just right. Itís okay to have

moral values. I donít think we should be ashamed of saying things are the morally correct thing to do. But if we have to bring self-interest into it, I think everybody benefits from living in a wealthier society and everyone is better off when everybody is better off. Whatís the reason that politics donít do wealth tax? We have a situation where we have some people now with such extreme levels of wealth, they have more power than our government and they have power over our government. Itís abso

lutely clear that our government is not listening to the people because weíve shown through research that people are in favor of taxation of wealth. But our politicians donít seem to be, which suggests that they are listening to this small group of people who have this most extreme levels of wealth who do not want that taxation to happen. Rob Farrington is the project manager at Wild Woodbury. Julia Davies pays his salary. He makes sure the land is able to recover and the native flora and fauna

can return and flourish. How big is the land which is rewilding now, that Julia purchased? Wild Woodberry is 170 hectares, and thatís pretty much here everything we can see as far as the more intensive blocks of conifers so everything in this direction and actually beyond the horizon all the way to the nearest village. Julia Davies believes nature is our greatest treasure, and itís under threat. Itís those like her, the super-rich, that are contributing disproportionately to climate change. We a

re in a situation now where our children and grandchildren are going to be worse off than us. I am ashamed of that and that is directly related to the concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people because I think we have a consensus that we need to do something to reduce the potential of dangerous climate change but at the same time we have extremely wealthy people who are using their wealth to block those changes. Iíve now come to London, to meet another multimillionaire whoís

fighting for a tax on extreme wealth. London continues to be the number one financial centre in Europe and the city where the most millionaires and billionaires live. Not all of them favour a wealth tax. In fact, many have stashed away their money in tax havens. The reigning monarch enjoys special privileges. According to law, the monarch in Buckingham Palace pays no income tax on their personal allowances, or the millions they earn from leasing out the royal estates, nor do they pay inheritance

tax on the billions to be inherited after the reigning monarch dies. Iím now meeting Phil White. Like Julia Davies, he too wants a wealth tax. Under the stern gaze of Britainís legendary prime minister Winston Churchill, we meet near parliament. He too has signed open letters calling for a taxation on extreme wealth. The rich must pay their fair share in every country in the world. Tax us, the rich, and tax us now. Phil White gained his wealth from being a partner and major stakeholder in a lar

ge consulting firm. We walk the few steps to the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the British Parliament. Phil believes that a tax on wealth like his is long overdue. Well, Iím a millionaire and I do believe that millionaires can usefully contribute more to this country. What we see is a lot of people really struggling with a cost of living crisis, with a whole bunch of social issues and crumbling infrastructure in many ways in the UK. And we need money, governments need money to sort that out

. And really the wealthy, people like me, can contribute more and actually take more of that load to help the country generally. Weíre here in front of the Houses of Parliament so why donít politicians make a wealth tax? I donít understand why politicians donít make a wealth tax frankly. Itís always been something thatís been on the agenda, but politicians donít like to do it. I think itís kind of odd. And weíre very specifically talking about taxing extreme wealth here, so weíre not talking abo

ut taxing people with a house or whatever, weíre talking about taxing people with millions of pounds who can afford to pay a bit of money. And I canít see any logic in not doing that. Phil is by no means alone amongst his peers. The group of Patriotic Millionaires is growing. I came across Patriotic Millionaires through some friends and weíve got entrepreneurs, weíve got people who have worked for it, weíve got inherited wealth, but everybody is coming at it from the same point of view which is:

we need to do something better with this and we need to do that through governments. And taxation is the way forward on this. While newlyweds have their photos taken at Westminster, we head off to a nearby pub. It turns out that taxing the super rich for the benefit of society is an attractive concept for many. In England, Patriotic Millionaires we did some polling and we found the majority of people are in favour of a wealth tax. Phil advocates implementing a global wealth tax. And he rejects

the frequently cited argument that it would cause the super-rich to leave the country. There is a statistic that I think something like 24 millionaires from Norway left to go to Switzerland to avoid taxation. But what the statistics didnít mention was that 236,000 stayed in Norway, so it was a very small fraction of people that left. So these statistics are often used and put against. But yes, we do need international agreements on this, thatís important. Every year in January, demonstrators flo

ck to the Swiss resort town of Davos to protest at the World Economic Forum, a meeting of the worldís wealthiest elite. Phil White joins the crowds. We are in favour of wealth taxes, we really want to reduce this level of wealth inequality in the world thatís so corrosive to society. Whether the demonstratorsí message got through to the rich and powerful meeting inside is not clear. We didnít get any reaction from the World Economic Forum per se. But we did get a lot of interest from around the

world actually in the media in presenting that story, and understanding why I was standing in Davos arguing for wealth taxes and arguing against inequality. Demonstrators representing the 99% of society that are not rich, returned to Davos last SUMMER. Phil White was there, along with Austrian multimillionaire Marlene Engelhorn. Iíve arranged to meet her in Vienna, outside the newly revamped parliament building. Lawmakers only returned to the building last year, after years of renovation work. M

arlene Engelhorn is 31 years old and studied German language and literature. Her family made its fortune through the pharmaceutical company Boehringer-Mannheim. Her late grandmotherís wealth was estimated at nearly 4 Billion euros. She herself inherited many millions. Marlene Engelhorn advocates for social justice. Sheís one of the most outspoken activists calling for a wealth tax. I would like to see a tax on the wealth of ultra-rich people like me. Itís unacceptable that most wealth is systema

tically concentrated among a few people. The richest one percent in Austria hold up to 50 percent of the wealth while half the population has to make do with just under three percent of the wealth. Itís unfairly distributed. And it doesn't have to be that way. Weíre standing in front of the parliament building. Why arenít politicians taking action here? I think politicians lack the will and the courage to take a stand against wealthy people like us and to say: Yes, you want to keep your wealth,

but the fact is that wealth is only created by society. So without the work of lots of people and their spending, your wealth couldnít be accumulated in the first place. If you don't respect that, you deny that your own wealth is linked to society. Schools, all of that, have to be financed and how are they financed? Through taxes. So you can make a contribution. And as a politician, you can require that. This is a democracy. Itís not the wealthy elite that rules. Just a stoneís throw from the Pa

rliament and the renowned Burgtheater is CafÈ Landtmann. Itís traditionally a meeting place for actors, politicians, businesspeople, and journalists. Its back rooms have no doubt been the scene of many a political deal. Itís the politicians that the millionaires are aiming to reach in their open letters calling for a wealth tax. The divide between the very rich and the rest must close. Tax us before itís too late. Iím also speaking on behalf of our initiative Tax-me-now, where we as millionaires

have made a joint commitment not to discuss which taxation models would be good, or to come up with our own models. Because once again itís a question of power: Why am I, as a wealthy person, allowed to decide what is a good tax model and whatís a bad one? No one who pays INCOME tax is asked: Do you think the income tax model is good, would you have an alternative? The question is not even asked. Do you think a wealth tax would prompt the super-rich to leave the country? Donít forget that most

people with a high net worth are just normal people. Their children go to school here, they have working relationships and friendships here, theyíre embedded in society. They might also love their home and have done up their villa wonderfully. So they don't want to have to build a new one somewhere else, to put it bluntly. Some assets can't simply be moved abroad: try packing your forest and your castle in your backpack and walking across the border it just doesn't work. Real estate canít be mov

ed. Wealthy families usually have a stack of financial advisors who make sure their wealth keeps on growing. Yes, say I represent the richest one percent of society, and viewers watching represent the other 99 percent. This is how it works: I have an incredible amount of money, let's say 100 million euros, weíre speaking hypothetically. And I go to the bank with my 100 million and want to put it in my account. The bank waves their finger at me saying Ms. Engelhorn, you have to invest it. So I op

en a securities account and I invest the money maybe I buy shares, meaning parts of companies then belong to me. Or I may buy government bonds, where I lend money to the state. I might invest in real estate, so I buy houses in which people live or work. And then the following happens: the 99 percent have to eat, so they go to the supermarket in which I have shares. So when they go shopping, I get money. They have to live, so they pay rent somewhere, perhaps in houses and apartments that I own, s

o they pay me rent. So I get a return on my investment. I take that return to the bank and they say Ms. Engelhorn, please invest and then I buy more apartments, more shares, more government bonds, and so it goes on increasing and increasing and it doesn't stop. I know, itís a dry subject! Engelhornís joke of the day! Hi, my name is Djaffar Shalchi. I am an Iranian-Danish entrepreneur. I was born in Tehran in 61. I think itís so important, that people like me, millionaires, speak up because we wi

ll be a big part of the solution. People who say: letís ask our governments to get the financing. But sorry: the government donít have the money, but the top 1 percent has the money. Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen is the seat of the Danish Parliament. This is where Iím meeting Djaffar Shalchi, a multimillionaire who earned his money in real estate. He came here as a child from Iran. The Danish welfare state enabled him to study and set up his company. Now he wants to give back. He says a we

alth tax could advance the UNís Sustainable Development Goals. I am a multi-millionaire and I think that the superrich have to be a part of the solution to solving our problems, the 17 SDGs. Without the top 1 percent I donít believe we can do it, thatís why. How you became a millionaire? I think I was lucky, I worked really hard, I had the right timing and so on. And the Danish society, the good welfare system, where the taxpayers pay their fair share, did for the days ago, but today is under pr

essure, a lot under pressure, I see the beautiful Danish society going more down than Iíve seen it 4 decades ago, and thatís why I am also fighting against it. We are here in front of Christiansborg, the Danish parliament. Why don't politicians implement a wealth tax? Why politicians donít do it is very simple actually: itís because still the superrich are influencing them so hard. Because behind every one of them, some organization, some superrich, some companies are donating to them. Thatís un

fortunately one of the biggest problems. And they donít have the courage to do that. Thatís why we need to get the money out of politics. If we donít get the money out, I donít believe we can do it. Djaffar has also signed the open letters to politicians. Their motto: in tax we trust. Address the elephant in the room: inequality. Thatís the message from Djaffar, Marlene and others to world leaders. Yes, we want to eradicate poverty, hunger, shelter, environmental problems and so on, but it requi

res something about 3 trillion dollars to achieve that every year. And our suggestion was: Yes, the top 1 percent should actually do it. Because 1 percent of the top 1 actually is about 3 trillion because we have so much money in our hands so that was our proposal and we were laughed on. But now seven years after, many others are talking about it, many NGOs and so on, so I am happy that they are not laughing any more, theyíre taking it seriously. You also would lose money, isnít it a problem for

you? No, because for me to give 1%, my gain is more than 10% every year, so it would be a just a little bit of the gaining and even not getting something out of my wealth. So the superrich can live their life like they always have done and at the same time save our planet and be the heroes actually. You say that a wealth tax is better and makes more sense than philanthropy why do you think so? I should not decide what I like to support, maybe I like cats so I give all my wealth to get the... We

have a society, we have schools, hospitals and so on, of course it should be a democratic system that collects that money and spend it to the welfare system, so it benefits everybody, and not because what I like or what I donít like. Solving the worldís problems with a small contribution from the super-rich certainly sounds good. In Germany too, polls show a large majority in favour of taxing extreme wealth. Itís the politicians who are holding back. I now have an appointment with Sebastian Kle

in. Heís another multimillionaire, or rather: a former multimillionaire. He co-developed the app Blinkist, which summarizes nonfiction books to reduce peopleís reading time. The app was sold last year for 200 million euros, he found his resulting wealth problematic. In recent years, Iíve thought a lot about the issue of inequality. I found the statistics really shocking: In countries like Germany, so many people have nothing while a small group is getting more and more. So when I suddenly had al

l this wealth MYSELF, I didn't want to become part of the problem, but rather part of the solution. And how will you be part of the solution? I decided to give up 90 percent of that wealth and transfer it to a charitable organization. Itís no longer part of my private assets but can benefit society. Weíre standing here in front of the German parliament, where politicians would have the means to change something, to tax extreme wealth. Whatís your message to them? I think it's shameful the way th

ings are right now. Labour is heavily taxed, while assets arenít taxed at all, and income from assets is not taxed heavily, or rather, less than labour. The government does have options: Inheritance tax, wealth tax, and capital gains tax could all be raised. There are always a few billion euros missing somewhere in the budget, so schools face cuts and no longer work as well while at the same time thereís all this private wealth thatís not taxed at all, and so much inheritance that goes untaxed o

r barely taxed. So politicians DO have a choice. Why do you think theyíre not doing anything? I keep asking myself the same question, because it would be in the interests of 95% of the population. I think the wealthy just have a very strong lobby so their voices get heard disproportionately. Together with others, Sebastian Klein now publishes a regular magazine promoting fair conditions in the workplace. The majority of his assets are now with a non-profit organization to which he himself has no

access. Not everyone gets it. And he even admits himself that there may come a time when he regrets his decision. But right now, he feels good about it. It was actually quite a burden to me to have so much private wealth. I find it liberating to say: Okay, I no longer need to think about how I can manage these assets so they increase. It feels mostly liberating. But, I can't rule out that one day there might be this beautiful vineyard that Iíd like to buy but canít, and then maybe I'll be annoy

ed but if that happens I'll just have to deal with it. His announcement that he would be donating the money for charitable causes certainly created a stir. Loads of people wrote to me. Some even sent me their account details right off. I could have given the money away very quickly. But I thought, if Iím not treating this as my private wealth, how can I maximize the positive effect that this capital has on society? And I'm still trying to figure that out. One of the first things I want to do now

is to start a media fund. Because many small media companies in Germany are underfunded and we really have a problem with the media landscape. A lot of people are no longer getting their information from reliable sources. So thatís one project now. And thereís a few more to come. Thereís certainly no shortage of options. Germany is wealthy but poverty and homelessness are on the rise. The coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine, spiralling energy prices and inflation theyíve all widened the ga

p between rich and poor. Unequal societies are not stable. There's more envy, division and hatred, more crime. And I think we need to make it clear: this affects everyone. Even the wealthy. If you live in a society thatís so unequal the poor start robbing others because they have no money and see no way of earning an honest living that's not desirable; not for the rich either. You can see what it's like in countries where society is even more unequal: The rich have to live behind barbed wire fen

ces and have soldiers protecting them from attack. Social cohesion can only work if the gap between rich and poor is not too great, if wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few. That has even led some to call for an upper limit on wealth. Few people reject the idea of an upper limit on wealth. Almost everyone says: yes, itís OK to limit it. The question is WHERE you limit it. I have an opinion on that, everyone has an opinion on that, it would just have to be negotiated politically. But t

o say that it's okay for someone to have 50 billion, while others have nothing or are drowning in debt, is something that very few people find fair. And in my experience, even wealthy people donít think itís fair. One of the worldís richest men, Elon Musk, is worth nearly 200 billion dollars thatís 200 thousand million. Such wealth can undermine democratic norms. In a democracy, we say everyone has a single vote. But the truth is that if I have wealth, if I have economic and financial power, I h

ave more than my vote. I have access to politicians, I can push through my own agenda more effectively, I can say: Man, if the politicians don't do what I want, then unfortunately I have to move a lot of jobs abroad. That's not a myth, itís what people with great wealth say themselves. And I can confirm that too: I have much more access to politicians than your average person on the street. And that just doesn't fit with the idea of a democracy where everyone should have a voice. Democracy, soci

al cohesion and our worldís natural resources are all at risk due to the concentration of extreme wealth in the hands of a few. And yet the solution could be so simple.