He was the CEO of the multinational BlackRock, one of the largest investment companies in the world. He never hid that he is a millionaire belonging to the richest 10% of the population. On the contrary, that is why he himself asks to be taxed more. Maurice Pearl, chairman of the Patriot Millionaires initiative, is one of the 200 millionaires and billionaires who signed a letter to Davos calling for tougher taxation on very high incomes. “K” sought out Pearl to see how good their idea was.

– Absolutely. We estimate that an average wealth tax on just those with wealth in excess of $5 million—the 0.05% of the richest people in the world—would raise more than $1.7 trillion globally. dollars annually. This is a huge amount of money, and although you can never completely solve the problem of poverty, it is crazy to think that almost 2 trillion. dollars a year would not have an incredible impact.

– It really depends on how high these incomes are. We tend to think that people who earn billions of dollars or euros a year can pay marginal tax rates, up to 90% on very high portions of their income. But that number is much higher than I personally would like for someone who makes only a few million dollars a year. This is a difficult question, but it is more about the future than the present, in the sense that today the rich pay much lower taxes than most people who work for their money. So, at least for the US, we are focused on the following goal: to increase the rate of capital appreciation to a level where wealthy investors like me, who passively earn a return on their pre-existing wealth, pay at least as much as how they do and people who work for a living. Right now, the top capital gains rate in the US is only half the top income tax rate, and we think that’s a problem.

I think this argument is invalid. I’ve never met anyone who decides not to worry about making their first billion because they will have to pay a lot of taxes on their second billion. Even if the top tax rates for the rich were astronomically higher than they are now, it would still be better to be rich! I don’t think any of us really support tax rates that make it impossible to get rich. We just want the richest people, who have benefited the most from the societies in which they live, to give those societies more.

Morris Pearl is among 200 millionaires who have turned to Davos to call for higher taxation of the rich.

“These are all great deeds on the part of the rich, but they are no substitute for taxes. Philanthropy is great, but if we allow our society to be left to the discretion of the richest people who choose where to put their charitable donations, it will be a society with many problems and many blind spots. There are many extremely wealthy people who will spend millions to have their name in a concert hall or museum. But there aren’t many who are willing to spend to get their name on the wastewater treatment plant. If we care about a healthy society, we need the tax dollars of the wealthy to be channeled by citizens through their democratically elected representatives. And, of course, this argument is even more applicable to ordinary people who earn their living.

“Of course, if a large portion of high-earning individuals suddenly have to pay much more taxes, they may have to sell some of their assets and shares, and their investments may decline, since many will sell the same investments at the same time. . But in general, once these people pay more taxes, there are two possibilities, or a combination of them:

1. The government will be able to spend more money. If this happens, then the money we are talking about will not disappear. They will be sent to government employees or government suppliers, who, in turn, will spend part of this income and save the other part. In fact, we could see significant economic growth instead, which would eventually lead to a stock market rally.

2. The government will cut its deficit. In this case, the total amount of public debt will decrease, so the amount of money that would have been used to service the debt will be invested elsewhere. And in this case, the total investment will be the same as before.

– I personally donate money to charity and I am sure that almost all the other signatories of the letter do the same. But there is a limit to the influence that one person can have, no matter how rich he may be. The challenges now facing the world are enormous, and the only way to meet them at the right level is through large-scale collective action. This cannot happen if we rely on the rich to donate money voluntarily. This must be done through government action and taxes.