---
title: "The Ultra-Wealthy Are Demanding to Pay Higher Taxes"
description: "While the world's elite gather at Davos for the World Economic Forum, hundreds of their ultra-rich peers demand to be taxed."
date: "2026-01-22"
modified: "2026-01-22"
authors:
  - name: "Joe Wilkins"
    job_title: "Correspondent"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins"
url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/billionaires-wealth-tax"
categories:
  - "Finance"
  - "Future Society"
---

# The Ultra-Wealthy Are Demanding to Pay Higher Taxes

![While the world's elite gather at Davos for the World Economic Forum, hundreds of their ultra-rich peers demand to be taxed.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/billionaires-wealth-tax.jpg>)
*Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images*

The loudest calls for taxing the ultra-rich amid this year's Davos summit aren't coming from hooded anarchists or revolutionary socialists, but from the one-percenters themselves.

We're not joking. While some of the richest individuals in history flock to the World Economic Forum summit, hundreds of their peers penned a letter calling on global leaders to address rising wealth inequality.

"The richest 1 percent now own more than 95 percent of the world's population put together," the [letter declared](<https://timetowin.world/>). "Millionaires like us refuse to be silent. It is time to be counted. Tax us and make sure the next fifty years meet the promise of progress for everyone."

The letter has some 400 signatories representing 24 countries so far, [according to *Fortune*](<https://fortune.com/2026/01/21/nearly-400-millionaires-billionaires-24-countries-demanding-davos-leaders-tax-them-more-super-rich/>). They include Disney heirs Abby and Tim Disney, actors including Mark Ruffalo, and real estate moguls like Jeffrey Gural.

"Tax us. Tax the super rich," the letter demands. "As millionaires who stand shoulder to shoulder with all people, we demand it. And as our elected representatives — whether it's those of you at Davos, local councilors, city mayors, or regional leaders — it's your duty to deliver it."

Indeed, economic inequality isn't simply a matter of frustration over income. As philosopher and ethics chair of institutions at Utrecht University Ingrid Robeyns explains in a column [penned in the *Guardian*](<https://www.theguardian.com/global/2026/jan/19/davos-rich-global-threat-economic-inequality-wealth>), "it is about who gets what share of what we produce together."

"In recent decades the divide has widened, making capital owners even richer and workers even poorer," Robeyns wrote.

That ever-widening gap between rich and poor has produced cascading crises: climate change [accelerated by oil cartels](<https://ephemerajournal.org/contribution/oil-companies-capital-accumulation-and-climate-emergency-0>), mass hunger [despite an overabundance of food](<https://developingeconomics.org/2024/05/07/imperialism-its-relevance-for-food-systems/>), preventable deaths while [pharmaceutical giants hoard patents](<https://jacobin.com/2024/01/big-pharma-profit-public-research-patents-intellectual-property>), deteriorating public schools [stripped by private equity](<https://www.clasp.org/publications/report/brief/threats-to-the-department-of-education-private-equity-replacing-public-funding/>), and housing treated as a [financial asset instead of shelter](<https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/financialization-housing>).

"As long as we dodge the question of whether neoliberal capitalism delivers what we want, and fail to take seriously the question of whether there are better systems, the world's key problems cannot be properly understood, let alone solved," Robeyns explains.

On a global scale, in other words, these millionaires and billionaires are essentially asking governments to solve a problem they've created. Their fortunes exist thanks to decades of [wage suppression](<https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/>), [privatization](<https://monthlyreview.org/articles/the-imf-and-class-struggle-in-latin-america/>), and [unequal exchange](<https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/uneven-development-without-social-relations>).

Waiting for the ultra-wealthy to voluntarily fund the common good isn't a viable strategy. As [history](<https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/>) [shows](<https://www.marxists.org/archive/saville/1957/xx/welfare.htm>), lasting progress comes from [organized power](<https://jacobin.com/2021/05/welfare-state-class-struggle-confrontation-compromise-labor-union-movement>) that gives working people real control over economic decisions. Still, it's as good a place as any to start the conversation, and it's nice to see a handful of the ultra-rich demand that they — and their less justice-conscious peers — be forced to pay their fair share.

**More on the ultra rich:** [*Tech Billionaires Are Starting Private Cities to Escape the United States*](<https://futurism.com/future-society/tech-billionaires-city-startups>)

## Author
At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/joeonhere.bsky.social>)