Millionaires ask leaders at Davos to tax the rich

"The letter said that a few ultrawealthy people are negatively influencing nearly every aspect of society. "A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet," the letter read. They said that higher taxes, on people - including themselves - was the solution."

"The annual WEF conference has gathered some of the world's richest and most powerful people in the Swiss mountain town. Business Insider tracked at least 157 private jets that arrived near Davos, using data from ADS-B Exchange and JetSpy. They included airplanes belonging to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Jets from companies like Aramco, BlackRock, Blackstone, Citigroup, Google, HP, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, and the quantitative hedge fund Two Sigma also arrived in the area."

Nearly 400 people who identify themselves as wealthy signed an open letter urging global leaders to raise taxes on the superrich. Signatories include Mark Ruffalo, Abigail Disney and Brian Eno. The letter states that a small number of ultrawealthy individuals have bought up democracies, taken over governments, gagged media freedom, constrained technology and innovation, worsened poverty and social exclusion, and accelerated environmental breakdown. Signatories say higher taxation, including on themselves, is the remedy and call on elected representatives at Davos and all levels of government to implement such taxes. The Davos gathering attracted many wealthy attendees; Business Insider tracked at least 157 private jets arriving near Davos, and Oxfam reported a record number of new billionaires last year.

Read at Business Insider