“Stop Coddling the Super-Rich”, that is the title of an article published last month in the New York Times.[1] The author is not an anti-globalisation activist back from any G-8 summit. W. E. Buffet is one of the richest men in the world. Buffet criticises the American tax system where “if you make money with money” you pay fewer taxes. Followed by a number of German and French super-rich, he asks the government to be taxed. This episode leads us to a couple of considerations.
The first reflection is cultural. When, as happens in the U.S., wealth is considered as synonym of individual success, the single “benefactor” is left free to decide to contribute or not to the community wellbeing. No one would never criticise him or her if he or she decided not to, because, according to the liberal vision “the investors who contribute to finding a better allocation of productive factors, the managers who insert creativity and efficiency in a big company, the creative person who colours others people’s life with his/her style or intuition: all of them are already making this world richer and more beautiful.”[2] What remains is the individual ethics, which may lead us to share part of our goods with “disadvantaged people”. Such a context feeds that Anglo-Saxon philanthropic approach taking often the form of special soundations especially if “you are better at making money than spending it”, as Buffet admits.
Where, on the contrary, individual richness is considered as the result of a broader support given by the society (including the role of company’s employees, the quality of services and facilities, the education received), the concept of restitution and the role of taxation come into play.
The development, over the last decades, of an increasingly smaller category of super-rich owning incredibly huge amounts of money has changed the vision of the self-made-man and has also revived the debate about taxes. According to Reich, for instance, “rich people do not pay taxes; they rather lend the government money.”[3]
However, it is possible to make also a second consideration: inequality is not positive for anyone. It is necessary, indeed, to allocate in any possible way (through private philanthropic initiatives or through a fair taxation) resources to the creation of structures and systems aimed at reducing social and economic inequality. The increase of an unjustified disparity, not based on a natural difference of talent and ability, might be lethal for the survival of democracy and the relevant chances to get rich.
[1] W.E. Buffett, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich”.
[2] Alberto Mingardi, “Per combattere davvero la povertà bisogna creare ricchezza, come avviene ogni giorno, nelle imprese private, sul mercato”.
[3] Robert Reich, “The Great Switch by the Super Rich”.
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