erAck (@[email protected])
social.tchncs.de
Attached: 1 image Yay! Germany is the second country having reached the #TaxTheRich European Citizen's Initiative minimum threshold! Only 5 more countries to go! Sign the initiative for your country now! https://eci.ec.europa.eu/038/public/ #OurFutureOurPlanet #SaveOurPlanet
  • callcc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    242·
    5 months ago

    Very nice initiative. Please send the link to people you think might sign. Especially if they are located in countries that haven’t reached the quorum yet.

  • recursive_recursion [they/them]@programming.devEnglish
    8·
    5 months ago

    HOLY CRAP 190% at time of writing from France!!

    damn France is killing it👌🔥

    Current Leaderboard (as of 9:21 UTC [July 26, 2024])

    1. France 190%
    2. Germany 101%
    3. Denmark 88%
    4. Belgium 67%
    5. Italy 47%
    6. Netherlands 38%
    7. Slovenia 28%
    8. Slovakia 23%
    9. Austria 21%
    10. Spain 19%
    11. Finland 16%
    12. Luxembourg 15%
  • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    103·
    5 months ago

    Les critères pour définir un « ultra-riche » devraient varier d’un pays de l’UE à un autre en raison des différences économiques, fiscales et sociales entre les Etats membres. A titre d’exemple, en Belgique, nous proposons que toute personne qui dispose de 1,25 million d’euros en plus de son habitation principale et des avoirs affectés à son activité professionnelle soit qualifiée d’ « ultra-riche ».

    If disposable assets (in addition to your house and normal expenses) of €1.25M counts as ultra-rich in Belgium what is rich then? And well-off? Isn’t the whole “eat the rich” idea targeted at billionaires which is a whole other level than this definition?

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
      121·
      5 months ago

      I agree that I would not call it “ultra rich”, but I don’t see why you shouldn’t pay more taxes at that point. You’re clearly still incredibly well off, and the ceiling & opportunities are much higher for you at that point too, to make even more money.

    • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      102·
      5 months ago

      Call me crazy but having €1,25M in assets (beyond your professional assets and home) while there are still people in need seems like a fine point to start contributing more to society and less to further increasing your personal wealth. If I had anywhere near that much money, I’d happily double my tax rates if it went to supporting those who can’t support themselves and assisting those who could benefit from it.

      I also suspect the home value exception is a major loophole here. The rich would begin investing more than ever into their homes.

    • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
      54·
      5 months ago

      1 million is like a good salary for 30 years (3.000€ Net for almost 28 years, 3K€ is great here in the EU).

      If that’s not some exceptionnal richess, well then I think it should be. Of at least tax them somewhat (the richer you are here, the less you pay in taxes)!

      Billionaires are just ridiculous, parasites of the society, and should be taxed til they are just stupidly rich.

    • Maalus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      413·
      5 months ago

      The “idea” stems from envy. It sounds good when it targets billionaires, but it will end up taxing anyone slightly well-off.

      • SSJMarx@lemm.eeEnglish
        62·
        5 months ago

        1.25M - not including your house and your professional assets - is quite a bit more than “slightly” well off. Any point you place the new tax at is going to be equally as arbitrary as any other point.

  • StaySquared@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    5 months ago

    This is a good test subject for us Americans. We will get to see how this pans out and hopefully then decide what’s right for America.

    Good luck!

    • brad_troika (he/him)@lemm.eeEnglish
      7·
      5 months ago

      That’s really really optimistic considering how well universal healthcare works everywhere compared to the US and yet there’s no change in that regard.

  • Cam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    686·
    5 months ago

    Tax the rich, and the rich will leave. When the rich leave, good luck getting a job since there are less places to work. Got no job? Enjoy being poor! Wanna start a business? You can but your better off working a 9 to 5!

    If I was rich, I would avoid countries with high taxes and countries that target the rich since why the fuck would you as a rich guy live in a country that robs you with joy?

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.worldEnglish
      402·
      5 months ago

      So why don’t all of the rich just leave and go live on an island together where there’s no tax and no poor people?

    • BestBouclettes@jlai.luEnglish
      23·
      5 months ago

      Up to a certain point, the rich don’t leave a country because of high taxes, there are studies that support it.

      Also, the rich usually are not the biggest jobs providers, most of the time in developed countries, these jobs have already been moved to China or another cheap labour country.

    • dooleypalooza@reddthat.comEnglish
      242·
      5 months ago

      The rich can leave if they want. They can’t take their assets with them so we can tax the shit out of their assets while they pack their bags. The whole point of this is redistribution of wealth. This isn’t targeting a doctor or lawyer or some other highly paid individual earning six figures, this is targeting the truly wealthy, People hoarding generational wealth

      • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        35·
        5 months ago

        This isn’t targeting a doctor or lawyer or some other highly paid individual earning six figures, this is targeting the truly wealthy, People hoarding generational wealth

        You’re wrong. Their definition of “ultra-rich” is suggested to start at €1.25M of disposable assets. That would easily hit doctors and lawyers in EU countries.

        • dooleypalooza@reddthat.comEnglish
          82·
          5 months ago

          Yeah but that’s not including a primary residence or any salary based remuneration. So if you take that into account then it’s entirely reasonable as a starting point. It also states that the calculation would be influenced by cost of living in a given country so places with HCOL would potentially be a larger amount.

          Don’t forget as well, it would likely be modeled on progressive taxation therefore any tax of this nature would only apply on anything above the €1.25M proposed figure

          • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            36·
            5 months ago

            I don’t think it’s reasonable. It’s aiming at upper middle class instead of actual, ultea-rich. Disposable assets of a million euros is far closer to the poor than the billionaires.

            And I’d like to have an actual definition than hoping it’d progress from there once implemented.

            • dooleypalooza@reddthat.comEnglish
              82·
              5 months ago

              You make a fair point but we can’t let perfection be the enemy of progress on this though, the stakes are too high… Better to get the movement off the ground and down politicians throats so they take it seriously. The details we can work out as it gets to the point of being taken seriously by European Parliament

            • callcc@lemmy.worldEnglish
              21·
              5 months ago

              I (and partner) just bought a house in that price range and we’ll have to pay it off in the next 30 years. I feel very rich for this, even though my net worth is of course still waaay below that figure.

              If you can afford paying a house this price out of your pocket without a mortgage, that definitely sounds ultra-rich to me.

              That being said, I think putting in that exact number might not be the best strategy to get many people to sign. I’d have aimed a higher, maybe 5M€.

              People never like to be consider themselves rich, everyone always likes to think of themself as being part of the middle-class. Everyone who thinks they might at some point reach those 1.25M€ of net worth (even of mostly illusory) on top of business and residence might thinks it’s too little as a threshold.

    • KacarottEnglish
      202·
      5 months ago

      If I was rich I would live wherever made me happy, probably somewhere with lots of nature, and I’d be happy to pay my share in taxes cus I can trivially afford it.

      It would be incredibly depressing to be rich but only find joy in hoarding money.

    • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
      141·
      5 months ago

      That’s why an EU-wide measure is useful. Obviously, only a global measure could truly prevent rich people from just moving to a different country, but making it more annoying to dodge taxes than to just move a few hundred kilometers, is already a step in that direction.

      In particular, on a rational level, these rich people do not need to care. They have significantly more money than they could ever spend. At best, they’d want to dodge taxes to get their high score to grow more quickly.

    • killingspark@feddit.orgEnglish
      122·
      5 months ago

      why the fuck would you as a rich guy live in a country that robs you with joy?

      Everyone has to contribute to the system. Calling taxes robbery is just bullshit.

      Anyways, the whole “the jobs will be lots” thing is bullshit too. As long as there is value to be extracted capitalists will employ people.

    • macniel@feddit.orgEnglish
      61·
      5 months ago

      Those rich fucks don’t contribute anyway so let them move into the desert where they can be tax free with no infrastructure, security, or amenities.