Her name is Abigail Disney and she is heir to the empire that has her last name. She is the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, brother of Walt Disney, with whom he founded The Walt Disney Company . And he is one of the 80 millionaires who have written an open letter in the United States and other countries requesting that tax increases be applied to help defray the funds to face Covid 19. "Tax us, tax us, tax us", they demand.
Self-proclaimed Millionaires for Humanity , some 80 millionaires from a dozen countries, including Walt Disney's heiress Abigail Disney; former BlackRock managing director Morris Pearl; and Danish-Iranian businessman Djaffar Shalchi, have asked for higher taxes from the wealthy to help pay billions of euros in government programs necessary after the Covid 19 pandemic.
"Today, we, the undersigned, millionaires and billionaires, ask our governments to raise taxes on people like us. Immediately. Substantially. Permanently," according to the manifesto. “We are not stocking grocery store shelves or delivering food door to door. But we have money, a lot of money. Money desperately needed now, "they add.
The letter, which is made public before the G20 meeting this weekend, is not the first such resource that this group of millionaires has carried out. Even before the pandemic, a group of some 200 wealthy people calling themselves Millionaire Patriots, including Disney and Pearl, were pushing for a more progressive tax system. "I would still have two planes," said one of them, Stephen Prince of Tennessee, when asked to pay more.
Members of that petition included Disney heiress Abigail Disney, Men's Wearhouse founder George Zimmer, property developer Jeffrey Gural and Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune. To be admitted to that club, it was necessary to have an annual income of one million dollars and assets of at least five million.
They claim new taxes and give figures. "To understand why a wealth tax is one of the most effective stimulus measures we could take at the moment, it is important to keep in mind that 84% of the shares are owned by the richest 10% of this country, or are in the hands of households that earn more than $ 150,000 a year, "they point out. "Further breaking down, just over 50% of the shares are owned by the top 1%, or households earning more than $ 737,000 a year."
This is why, they add, there are "trillions of dollars" in wealth "almost entirely tax-free" that belong to the richest people, "thanks to the ridiculously low tax rate on our country's capital gains."