The immense power of the new plutocracy: How billionaires like Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg shape our lives and our democracies

"On May 5, 1789, King Louis XVI of France inaugurated the Estates-General. The institution convened that year to address the problem of rampant inflation and the bankruptcy of the monarchy, which was deeply indebted due to a lack of revenue. Neither the nobility nor the clergy paid taxes. Not because they were short of money. Their reason for exemption was simpler and more absurd: it was their privilege."

"The privilege was closely linked to the discontent of 98% of French citizens who suffered from food shortages and rising prices and who were neither members of the nobility nor the clergy the so-called Third Estate. This discontent stemmed not only from the injustice of taxes that disproportionately burdened those with the fewest resources, but also from the political power imbalance that these privileges revealed."

"More recently, on June 8, 2021, ProPublica published an investigation into the taxes of U.S. billionaires. After accessing their tax records, they found in several annual returns of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, George Soros, and Warren Buffett that they had managed to pay absolutely no income tax without committing a single irregularity. They were the most notorious cases, but the average income tax rate paid by the 25 richest people in the country between 2014 and 2018 was also disconcerting: 15.8%."

"That's lower than the rate a single worker making $45,000 a year might pay, ProPublica wrote. Although the difference is not as pronounced in Europe, the same rule applies in Belgium, Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands: the effective taxes paid by the wealthiest 1% are always lower than those of the average taxpayer."

The Estates-General convened in 1789 to address inflation and the monarchy’s bankruptcy caused by insufficient revenue. The nobility and clergy did not pay taxes, claiming exemption as a privilege rather than necessity. This privilege intensified resentment among about 98% of French citizens in the Third Estate, who faced food shortages and rising prices while carrying disproportionate tax burdens. The imbalance also reflected political power concentrated among privileged groups. A 2021 investigation found that several U.S. billionaires reported paying no income tax in certain years without irregularities. The average income tax rate for the 25 richest people from 2014 to 2018 was 15.8%, lower than what many workers pay. Similar patterns appear across multiple European countries, where the wealthiest 1% pay lower effective taxes than average taxpayers.

Read at english.elpais.com