The world's 10 richest people made $540bn in a year – we need a greed tax

The idea that the rich should bail out the poor, who have been disproportionately hurt by the pandemic, is a no-brainer; it’s the only conscionable thing to do. However, when it comes to wealth taxes, I think we need to be careful about lumping people with assets above £1m in the same general category as people like Bezos, whose wealth can balloon by £10bn in a single day. There is a significant difference between millionaires and billionaires: the former should pay their fair share via a more progressive tax system; the latter shouldn’t exist. Billionaires aren’t just super-rich people, they’re policy failures.

 A system in which 10 men can see their collective wealth increase by half a trillion during a global crisis can’t be fixed with a one-off wealth tax – we need greed taxes that prevent people amassing that much in the first place.

 From Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi