"Proud to pay more": The billionaires who want to pay more tax
Over 250 millionaires and billionaires have issued an open letter to global leaders encouraging them to implement wealth taxes to combat the cost-of-living crisis.
This comes just as a report by the Oxfam Charity revealed that the global wealth of billionaires have only grown in the last three years despite inflation.
The open letter, signed by super-rich individuals from 17 countries, includes signatories like Abigail Disney, the grand-niece of Walt Disney, Succession actor Brian Cox, and American philanthropist and Rockefeller family heir Valerie Rockefeller.
They said that they would be "proud to pay more taxes" in order to address the inequality.
"Elected leaders must tax us, the super rich," the letter read.
"This will not fundamentally alter our standard of living, nor deprive our children, nor harm our nations' economic growth.
"But it will turn extreme and unproductive private wealth into an investment for our common democratic future."
Austrian heir Marlene Engelhorn is also among the voices demanding that they pay more in taxes.
"I've inherited a fortune and therefore power, without having done anything for it. And the state doesn't even want taxes on it," Engelhorn, who inherited millions from her family who founded chemical giant BASF, said.
The letter was released just as global leaders gather in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
Abigail Disney, whose net-worth is measured at more than $100 million, said that lawmakers need to come together to make a meaningful economic and social change.
"There's too much at stake for us all to wait for the ultra rich to grow a conscience and voluntarily change their ways," she said.
"For that reason, lawmakers must step in and tax extreme wealth, along with the variety of environmentally destructive habits of the world's richest."
A recent survey of almost 2400 millionaires found that 74 per cent of them supported the introduction of a wealth tax to fund improved public services and deal with the cost-of-living crisis.
The open letter also said that one-off donations and philanthropy "cannot redress the current colossal imbalance" of societal wealth.
"We need our governments and our leaders to lead," the letter said.
"The true measure of a society can be found, not just in how it treats its most vulnerable, but in what it asks of its wealthiest members."
Images: Getty