In 2024, wealth concentration reached an all-time high. Accordingly Forbes billionaires listNot only are there more billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are richer than ever, with a net worth of $14.2 trillion. It’s a trend that looks set to continue unabated. A Latest report Financial data company Ultrata estimates that about 1.2 million individuals worth more than $5 million will pass on a collective wealth of about $31 trillion over the next decade.
There is growing discontent and concern about the consequences of extreme wealth in our society. For example, Senator Bernie Sanders said that “The obscene level of income and wealth inequality in America is a deeply moral issue.“In A Joint op-ed for CNN In 2023, Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Disney heiress Abigail Disney wrote that “extreme wealth inequality is a threat to our economy and democracy.” In 2024, when Tesla’s board put a $56 billion pay package for Elon Musk to a vote, some major shareholders voted against it, declaring that such a compensation level was “absurd” and “ridiculous“
In 2025, the fight against rising wealth inequality will be high on the political agenda. In July 2024, the G20—the world’s 20 largest economies—agreed to work on Brazil’s proposal to introduce a new global.The billionaire taxThat would impose a 2 percent tax on wealth over $1 billion. This would raise an estimated $250 billion annually. While this particular proposal was not endorsed in the Rio Declaration, the G-20 countries Agreed That the super rich should be taxed more.
Progressive politicians will not be the only ones trying to solve this problem. In 2025, millionaires themselves will increasingly mobilize and put pressure on political leaders. There is one such movement Patriot millionaireA nonpartisan group of millionaires who are already publicly campaigning and privately lobbying the US Congress to protect a guaranteed living wage for all, a fair tax system, and equal representation. “Millionaires and big corporations—those who have profited most from our nation’s wealth—must pay a larger percentage of the tab to run the country.,” their value statement reads. Members include Abigail Disney, former BlackRock executive Morris Pearl, legal scholar Lawrence Lessig, screenwriter Norman Lear, and investor Lawrence Benson.
There is another example TaxMeNowA lobby group founded in 2021 by young millionaires from Germany, Austria and Switzerland that also advocates a higher wealth tax. Its most famous member is 32-year-old Marlene Engelhorn, a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, founder of the German pharma company BASF. He recently established a council made up of 50 randomly selected Austrian citizens to decide what should happen to his €25 million inheritance. “I inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without doing anything for it,” he said in a statement. “If the politicians don’t do their job and redistribute, I will have to redistribute my wealth.”
Earlier this year, Patriot Millionaire, TaxMeNow, Oxfam, and another activist group Millionaires for humanity Formed a coalition called ‘Proud to Pay More’, and addressed a letter to to global leaders during the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Signed by hundreds of high-net-worth individuals – including heiress Valerie Rockefeller, actor Simon Pegg, and filmmaker Richard Curtis – the letter said: “We all know that ‘trickle down economics’ translates into reality. It has not happened. Instead it has left us with stagnant wages, crumbling infrastructure, failing public services and destabilizing the institution of democracy: “We ask you to take this necessary and inevitable step before it is too late. Make your countries proud.” In 2025, these calls will be even louder, thanks to a new wave of activist millionaires.
