Why We Should Abolish The Super Rich

The rationales for accepting vast inequalities of income and wealth simply do not hold up.

By Tom Malleson, Inequality.org

In many parts of the world, inequality is spiraling out of control. The basic facts have become depressingly familiar.

In the United States, the top 0.1 percent now control about the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90 percent of the entire population. Globally, the richest eight individuals possess as much wealth as half the entire planet.

The United States could completely eradicate homelessness by taxing away just 2 percent of the wealth of a mere two billionaires, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. If we redistributed 2 percent of the wealth of all the world’s billionaires, leaving completely untouched the wealth of well over 99.9 percent of the world’s population, we could eliminate extreme poverty entirely. Billionaires, meanwhile, would likely not even lose any money in the process since they typically earn more than 2 percent annually off their wealth.

Despite stats like these, the same old objections resurface again and again, like ideological zombies, whenever anyone dares suggest a redistribution of grand fortunes.