The Wealth Tax "I will go somewhere else..."
The disparity of ethics and economic ideas between the lower and upper classes.
“But we are more civilised than ancient Rome”
The Roman Empire. The year is 133 B.C. A decade earlier, Rome had conquered Carthage. History written under the Roman guise as a victory. Though with the conquering of their economically dominant cousin, new challenges arose in the Roman plebeians eyes. The idea of political reform.
One such reform was to provide Roman citizenship to those under the empire, including its subjugate states. Tiberius Gracchus, a lower ranking politician, had provided an agrarian reform policy to the Roman senate and nobility, in which the subjects of Rome can have citizenship and ownership over the lands.
Gracchus’ suggestion was to provide land and citizenship to the people, in turn allowing the senate to tax the people for their labour and land, a longer term strategy, which would have been a successful trade between the wealthy and the lower classes. They are provided with citizenship, and the rich can tax their lands, labour and harvests.
This proposal was met with a fierce violence by the senatorial and nobility classes. How could the successful and powerful elite give their lands to the ghastly common rabble? What soon ensued was the execution of Gracchus by public stoning, undertaken by the senators themselves.
The question is then, why would the Roman nobility reject this proposal? Simply because they can maintain their already existing assets and power without providing a share to the backbone of their economy, the labourers.
The modern day conundrum
The idea of the wealth tax is something that frightens the oligarchs and uber wealthy. It should come as no surprise. The famous line that gets banded about in economic rhetoric is “I will go somewhere else”. That is to say, I as a millionaire (or billionaire) will send my money to an offshore account and you cannot tax it. This fundamental statement not only indicates the level of avoidance that the rich have, but their view of ethics are fundamentally different between that of someone in a working class position.
Are we that different of a society from ancient times?
Sure, we do not crucify, or publicly execute individuals. We instead either cancel their voice on social media, or underhandedly kill them off disguising it as an accident. Opposed to exerting obvious physical force, we subvert another countries leadership and install puppet governments.
My overarching point of concern here though for millennia, and probably another millennia to come, the elite have is that the elite maintain their hegemony and status and wealth that that have accumulated, and wish to not contribute their share. It is fundamentally short-term psychopathic level of thinking. It is considered an insult to them to suggest that there needs to be reform or change in which they contribution to a nation or state.
“A wealth tax will make us poorer because they will leave”
Understandably, a valid counter argument is that the super wealthy will leave if they are subjected to pay more in taxes. In the UK at least 12 billionaires in 2024, and in 2025 only 9 billionaires had left the migrated out of the country. According to Henley & Partners, roughly 16,500 millionaires had left the UK in 2025.
It is said that the vast majority of super rich people do not see a future here, especially if there is a proposal to tax their wealth and assets. This is not true. The UK itself has over 2 million millionaires still. In comparison to the 16,500, that is approximately 0.5% to 0.6% of the super wealthy. Though, arguably that is still a large percentage taxable wealth that will need to be accounted for and paid by the tax payer.
Yet the wealthy who were to stay and contribute a percentage of their gains will be the ones with a moral backbone and a fundamental understanding of what is the right thing to do.
Are we, the public, forgetful enough that during covid and lockdown the transfer of over £300 billion which the lower and middle classes of society did not touch but instead went into the elites offshore accounts?
For every person in the United Kingdom, that would have estimated to £13,000 per person. But don’t worry, trickle down economics will fix that issue…
“They are in bed with the government, nothing will change”
A statement I have also caught myself saying, because there is plenty of lobbying and bribery and corruption taking place, there is no denying it. Much like our Roman counterparts, who were also frivolously corrupt, the repetition of this level of corruption in our modern society is what we can affect change upon.
Though while it is the case that immense corruption does exist in the UK and other western nations, perhaps we look too close to home in how to deal with this rampant issue that plagues the lower classes of society.
While the west shuns China and their actions regarding global warming, Taiwan issues, supply chain issues and notably their strict enforcement of the laws and policies they have, it is in their banking system which draws my attention in how they handle assets and finances.
Any individual, who is a Chinese citizen, can make transfers of up to £37,000. Beyond this point, the government and banking system will ask questions and have denied. A prime example of the strict policy enforcement that China follows would be the case of a businessman called Xiao Jianhua. A successful businessman who made his wealth through Tomorrow Group.
In 2017, Xiao Jianhua was taken in a Hong Kong apartment and later arrested in 2022 on the charges of bribery and illegal absorption of public funds. The Chinese authorities alleged that Xiao and his associates had formed networks to transfer money to overseas accounts, thus bypassing any taxes that he would had paid.
This case demonstrates the level of concern the Chinese government has with regards to the super rich. Wealthy individuals with enough capital are able to form networks and operate beyond normal state control. Compared with our late 70’s neo-liberal ideology shift, the western government(s) do not have that level of seriousness in regards to this monopolisation and network forming. They have sold out.
What’s next then?
As the example I gave at the beginning of this article, outlining the long-term benefits of an agrarian reform, so to will a wealth tax have long term benefits. Not just for the lower classes, but also for the rich as they will be able to reap the benefits from the average tax payer again - a point that is sorely missed.
A thought that crossed my mind, during the lockdown of course, people still had to spend money in order to survive, by giving them relief of this tax burden, they will be able to contribute to the GDP as a whole within this country because they have more to spend.
In due time, hopefully a wealth tax can be implemented, not only in the UK, but across nations, for the betterment of the ordinary individuals and families, and in the long-term, supporting the rich.