this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
266 points (96.5% liked)

Europe

8485 readers
1 users here now

News/Interesting Stories/Beautiful Pictures from Europe 🇪🇺

(Current banner: Thunder mountain, Germany, 🇩🇪 ) Feel free to post submissions for banner pictures

Rules

(This list is obviously incomplete, but it will get expanded when necessary)

  1. Be nice to each other (e.g. No direct insults against each other);
  2. No racism, antisemitism, dehumanisation of minorities or glorification of National Socialism allowed;
  3. No posts linking to mis-information funded by foreign states or billionaires.

Also check out [email protected]

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Here is the direct link to the initiative: https://europa.eu/citizens-initiative/initiatives/details/2023/000006_en

It seems like you can't sign it yet though. Does anyone know how long it usually takes until they are signable after registration?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

https://www.tax-the-rich.eu/

This is the campaigns website.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not sure, but the website has a form that you can use to subscribe and get notified when the petition is open: https://www.tax-the-rich.eu/home#support

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How can I click on a link in memmy? It’s hard

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'm not 100% on memmy, but is there a show source option? That way you could copy the link.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Lőrinc Mészáros and other Fidesz assets are panicking

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

In reality, however, inequalities have persistently grown, to the point where today the richest 1% of the world's population own almost half of the global wealth and that same 1% also emit more CO2 than the poorest half of the planet.

Dumb argument for a tax in the EU.
If you earn 45000€ or more per year (post-tax) you are in the 1%. (According to this)
That sure is a nice wage, but it's definitely not rich and employees with a degree are not the people we should be taxing even more.

Also this:

The richest 1% of the planet own nearly half of all wealth. These same ultra-rich emit more CO2 than the poorest half of the planet.

So 45000€ is ultra-rich?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you earn 45000€ or more per year (post-tax) you are in the 1%. (According to this)

€45,000/yr is in top 1% globally, but not the top 1% for the EU. Either way, the article is discussing a tax on wealth, not income. Even if €45,000/yr was in the top 1% income for the EU, someone making that salary is extremely unlikely to have accumulated enough assets to place them in the top 1% for wealth.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yes 45K is the global Top 1%. But in the quoted parts they are talking about the global 1% and frame them as "ultra-rich". Not just the EUs Top 1%.

The richest 1% of the planet own nearly half of all wealth. These same ultra-rich emit more CO2 than the poorest half of the planet.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

the 1% the petition is talking about is global, as well as the ownership claims, and the CO2 pollution claim.

it's worded a bit oddly, but they want to tax the "global 1%", not (just) the "EU 1%".

as you pointed out, there's a pretty big difference between the two.

since the initiatives goals are largely about climate change, which is obviously a global problem in need of global solutions, this framing makes sense. it could have been written a bit clearer...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No. If you own 40.000€ per year, you are in the top 1% globally. So, „taxing the rich 1%“ means not only taxing billionaires, but also average incomes in western countries.

Edit: Here you can check how rich you actually are: How rich am I?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice Website but its only checks your income. If you have to work for your money your not rich in a western country

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What? Of course you are. You are not rich by western standards, but globally you are.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I couldn't find anywhere what they mean by 1%. If it's as you say, and an annual income of €4500 is enough to be considered as such, then I think it would be quite excessive.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I am a student and I have nothing, and I am richer than 28% of my country because I don't have debt.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

the richest 1% of the world’s population

If you earn 45000€ a year, which in many countries is just a bit above average, then you are richer than 99% of people in the entire world.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

I'm all for it but what would it help if the super rich just move out of EU. I live in a heavily taxed country and most of our super rich just keep their activities in countries where there I no tax.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'll be the one to pop the bubble. All this will do: people will move their assets outside the EU, making tax havens even richer.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/20/if-you-tax-the-rich-they-wont-leave-us-data-contradicts-millionaires-threats

https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/media/_media/pdf/pathways/summer_2014/Pathways_Summer_2014_YoungVarner.pdf

No they dont. But they love it when this false Info gets continually parroted.

The EU is one of the biggest and most attractive markets worldwide. Companies will NOT leave it. Not every asset can just be up and moved. Panama Papers and countless other sources also show that anything that CAN be moved is already there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

A lot of companies avoid taxes in the EU already (including big tech giants).

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is an old argument that's long dead. The bottom line is it's a big deal to uproot your entire life / entire company just to exploit tax loopholes, and the use of tax havens is already so common place that it is unlikely to be exacerbated by additional scrutiny.

The book Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe talks a lot on this topic. The authors Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage defend progressive taxation, and state that the only historically-successful argument for raising taxes on the ultra wealthy has been "conscription of wealth" - The working class were conscripted to fight and die in war while the propertied class were not, so the property of the ultra wealthy was taxed very highly (conscripted) for war efforts.

Today, the world faces numerous crisis, and it is the lower class that will work the hardest and be forced to suffer the most while resolving them. It seems reasonable to me that the wealth of the upper class should likewise be put to use solving these crisis rather than exacerbating them. That's a conscription of wealth I can get behind.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Well then it seems like a good idea to heavily sanction tax havens as well. This argument is always one of the more defeatist takes you hear when talking about taxing the rich. Spoiler, it doesn’t happen. Most people still stay in the country and what wealth they would transfer to tax havens is already there.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

This in turn will put more pressure on legislators to go after them. This game only works until it doesn't

load more comments
view more: next ›