------  Canada needs an excess wealth tax 

 

Your editorial promoting a "wealth tax", last December, has just had its argument endorsed by Bloomberg news -- their "Bloomberg Billionaires Index" for 2020 shows that the wealthiest 500 people added $1.8 trillion to their combined wealth ($7.6 trillion). This is for the whole world, not just the Canadian rich.  The U.N. reports that last year 207 million more people slid into "extreme poverty" during this same time.  Bloomberg says Elon Musk (of Tesla) was at the top of this list; in fact, the report says his wealth accumulation during the pandemic year was the fastest wealth accumulation in recorded history.  Faster than the Romans conquering their known world, or the Spanish looting of the Americas.   

In this context, I think your argument for a special wealth tax is inescapable.  We are going to come through this pandemic with a very large public debt, which must be repaid as quickly as possible to avoid crushing interest payments on that debt.  I urge my Conservative friends to recognize this as a legitimate route to ridding ourselves of the life-crushing debt we've assumed to prevent all of us (rich people, too) from being crushed by Covid-19.  As you wrote, we are to protect people, not profits. There's a novel idea!

Ernest Albright, PhD

Pontiac