Factlet (6)

 

Extraordinary Times....         Desperate Times.....

That's Billions With a 'B'

   For review, a Factlet is true, whereas a Factoid is only widely believed to be true. I have not provided a Factlet for a while, so here are a bunch of them in one post. My last one was about the Opioid Epidemic and was negative, and this one is about the Covid Pandemic, but is positive. The pandemic has been profitable for some and not just the manufacturers of Purell or the makers of plexiglass. To wit:

   To put the chart in context, consider this:

A Wealth Tax??

   Jeff Bezos has already decided to give $10 billion to causes relating to climate change. He started by donating $791 million to various organizations, including $100 million each to: The Environmental Defense Fund, The National Resources Defense Council. The Nature Conservancy, The World Resources Institute and The World Wildlife Fund.  This will certainly help, since in 2019 only 2% of the $730 billion given globally was for the fight against climate change.

   Elon Musk has decided to move from California to Texas. The decision may be related to the fact that the Lone Star State has less regulations and lower taxes.

   Short of pleading for these individuals to be more philanthropic, what could be done? Instituting a wealth tax is one option and it is being considered in the UK. It is suggested that the tax could be a one-time one and there appears to be a fair amount of public support for it. That would likely be true here, but perhaps not in the Lone Star State during the time of Trump.

Sources:

   The chart is from a report produced for Americans For Tax Fairness and The Institute for Policy Studies. The title: "Net Worth of U.S. Billionaires Has Soared by $1 Trillion - To Total of $4 Trillion - Since Pandemic Began." A sub-heading indicates that the "Wealth Increase in 9 Months Exceeds Likely $908 Billion Cost of Covid Relief Package GOP Has Stalled as Too Costly."

   The charitable actions of Bezos are reported in the Washington Post - see: "Bezos Makes First Donations From $10 Billion Earth Fund For Fighting Climate Change," Steven Mufson, Nov. 16, 2020.

Bezos owns the Washington Post.

   The title of the Wealth Tax Report is: "A Wealth Tax For the UK", Wealth Tax Commission Final Report, by Arun Advani et al. The full 126 pp final report is available. 

The defining feature of a one-off wealth tax is that it would be a one-off exceptional response to a particular crisis. Individuals would only be taxed once based on the wealth they owned valued at a particular date. They would still be allowed to pay the tax in instalments over a number of subsequent years, to reduce the cost in any single year, but the amount of tax would be based on their wealth on the initial assessment date.

For two articles about the report: "Economic Cost of Covid Crisis Prompts Call For One-Off UK Wealth Tax," Richard Partington, The Guardian, Dec. 9, 2020 and "U.K. Urged To Levy $350 Billion Wealth Tax to Fund Pandemic," Andrew Atkinson, Dec. 9, 2020.

The Bonus: 

   You will have noticed the names of three Waltons in the chart. To see what Alice did with a bit of her money a few years ago, read this earlier post or, when the pandemic is over, travel to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.