U.N. Calls for Tax on Wealthy to Aid World’s Poor

New York- Posted by: Democracy Now! Posted date: 06 July 2012 In: Economics, International, North America

The United Nations is calling for a number of new taxes in a bid to help aid the world’s poor. In a new report, the World Economic and Social Survey calls for proposals including taxes on carbon emissions, financial transactions, and on the world’s billionaires. Robert Vos of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs unveiled the report.

Robert Vos: “If you tax by, for instance, 1 percent the wealth held by billionaires, so meaning everybody holding more than $1 billion in wealth, that would not really affect them in terms of their incomes or just the revenue. The income flow they would already have on their wealth holding would by far outstrip the tax you would take away from them. So, in that sense, it would be another tax, which also makes sense from any economic theoretical argument.”