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Wealth tax would be deadly for French economy, says Europe’s richest man (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by resipsaloquitur@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36272492

Europe’s richest man, the luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault, has said that a wealth tax that could cost him more than €1bn (£817m) would be deadly for France’s economy.

The French founder of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton said in a statement to the Sunday Times that calls for a 2% wealth tax on all assets “aims to destroy the liberal economy, the only one that works for the good of all”.

The idea of a wealth tax has steadily gained ground in France because of a political crisis, with the government trying to push through unpopular budget cuts. The idea of a 2% wealth tax on fortunes worth more than €100m has been proposed by Gabriel Zucman, an economics professor who has become a household name in France.

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[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

“aims to destroy the liberal economy, the only one that works for the good of all”.

Lmao. Seriously dude?

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah. And he really means it the way every European would read it anyhow: Economic Liberalism, a.k.a. Unfettered Capitalism

Arnault’s net worth stood at $169bn (£125bn) on Friday, mainly because of his 48% stake in LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, according to Bloomberg. After joining his family company and turning it from construction to property, Arnault grew his fortune by buying up brands ranging from the jewellers Bulgari and Tiffany & Co, the fashion houses Christian Dior and Celine, to perfumes and whiskey brand Glenmorangie.

(...)

The wealth tax could raise as much as €20bn, according to Zucman. However, other economists have argued that it would raise only €5bn if the ultra-wealthy leave France.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The wealth tax could raise as much as €20bn

for reference: france has 70m inhabitants. if that money is distributed among the people, that's 300€/person per year.

that doesn't sound like a lot. that probably only covers something like 3% of people's cost of living. but it would be a valuable small experiment that can inform us about what works and what doesn't work, and then we can see how we go on.

edit: i did the calculation, and the same wealth tax implemented in the US would generate about $7k/person per year. Source: link and link and some spreadsheet maths.

that's a sizeable income, and if that was distributed among the people, it would really help them.