{"id":128266,"date":"2026-05-12T23:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/pity-the-poor-billionaires-demands-for-higher-taxes-must-feel-hurtful-arwa-mahdawi\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T02:24:12","slug":"pity-the-poor-billionaires-demands-for-higher-taxes-must-feel-hurtful-arwa-mahdawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/pity-the-poor-billionaires-demands-for-higher-taxes-must-feel-hurtful-arwa-mahdawi\/","title":{"rendered":"Pity the poor billionaires \u2013 demands for higher taxes must feel hurtful | Arwa Mahdawi"},"content":{"rendered":"


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W<\/span>on\u2019t anyone think of the poor, poor, billionaires? Their endless money can buy them political power, but it can\u2019t buy them love. Instead of being worshipped by the hoi polloi, titans of industry are denounced! Despised! Disrespected! Insert another D-word of your own!<\/p>\n

Thankfully, class solidarity is strong among the super-rich. Steve Roth bravely brought attention<\/a> to the plight of his fellow billionaires during a recent earnings call. \u201cI consider the phrase \u2018tax the rich\u2019 \u2026 spit out with anger and contempt by politicians \u2026 to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs,\u201d the Vornado Realty Trust CEO said.<\/p>\n

One of the politicians Roth was referencing, New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, has himself been subject to some \u201cdisgusting racial slurs\u201d. The city\u2019s first Muslim mayor was termed a \u201cknown jihadist terrorist<\/a>\u201d (among other Islamophobic names) by figures including fellow New York politician Vickie Paladino. While I can\u2019t find evidence that Roth felt the need to comment on these attacks, he was upset that the mayor filmed a video announcing a tax on second homes worth more than $5m in front of fellow billionaire Ken Griffin\u2019s penthouse. According to Roth, this was \u201cirresponsible\u201d. Which is a tenuous argument considering Griffin\u2019s record-breaking penthouse wasn\u2019t exactly flying under the radar. It was bought for $238m in 2019, the highest price ever paid for residential US property.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Ken Griffin, who bought his New York penthouse for a record-setting price.<\/span> Photograph: Mike Blake\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But I don\u2019t mean to belittle billionaire pain here. It must be hard to hear people say shocking things such as: \u201cMaybe we should restructure the tax code so the ultra-rich don\u2019t pay lower effective tax rates than teachers.\u201d It must hurt to imagine a future where punitive taxes mean people like Griffin can only afford pieds-\u00e0-terre in the $100m range.<\/p>\n

Still, I do have good news: when you look past all this nastiness, things have never been better for billionaires. Their wealth jumped by more than 16% in 2025, three times faster than the previous five-year average, according to an Oxfam report<\/a>. While billionaire wealth has increased by 81% since 2020, it adds, \u201cone in four people don\u2019t regularly have enough to eat\u201d. (I think there\u2019s a catchphrase about what they could eat \u2013 it rhymes with \u201cthe witch\u201d \u2013 but I don\u2019t want to peddle hate speech.)<\/p>\n

Some more good news for the 1%: you own the news! In Oxfam\u2019s words: \u201cBillionaires own more than half the world\u2019s largest media companies and all the main social media companies.\u201d Which may explain why, despite surging inequality, wealth-hoarding oligarchs still have so many prominent fanboys. Wall Street Journal columnist Kyle Smith<\/a>, for example, recently published a piece entitled Billionaires Rock in which he lamented how billionaires are \u201cdenounced, despised and disrespected\u201d, noting: \u201cOur greatest billionaires ought to have statues placed in public squares. Their stories ought to be taught to children as parables of inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

I know this reads like satire but look at who owns the Wall Street Journal and it will make sense. There\u2019s no point trying to get a man to understand the unsustainability of widening economic divides when, to paraphrase the author and activist Upton Sinclair, his salary depends on his not understanding it.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Gold bless America \u2026 a statue of Donald Trump at one of his Florida golf clubs.<\/span> Photograph: Orlando Ramirez\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyway, I\u2019m sure Smith will be pleased to hear that we\u2019re already erecting shrines to our ruling class. There\u2019s now a big gold statue<\/a> of Trump at a Miami-area golf course and the president is hopeful he\u2019ll get more gold statues in Gaza<\/a> and Venezuela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the Trump administration aggressively meddling in what schools<\/a> and universities<\/a> are able to teach, it may not be long until billionaire life stories are taught to US schoolchildren. Who needs to learn about slavery, and how it continues to shape the racial wealth gap<\/a>, when you can hear the heartwarming story of how a young Mark Zuckerberg called a bunch of his peers \u201cdumb fucks<\/a>\u201d for trusting him with their data and then went on to build a trillion-dollar company accused of facilitating genocide<\/a>?<\/p>\n

But back to our poor oligarchs: what can be done to soothe their frayed nerves? If we can\u2019t make billionaires a protected class or assign them each an emotional support politician, perhaps we can set up a hotline where they can hear reassuring affirmations whenever they feel sad. Or maybe we should all just chip in and crowdfund them a reality check.<\/p>\n