Abigail Disney calls for wealth tax on rich people, internet lauds her for stating 'obvious issue with economy'
On Thursday, Abigail Disney, whose grandfather was the Walt Disney Company's co-founder Roy Disney, said "tax us" and openly pleaded the U.S. government to bring wealth tax against the rich as the number of unemployed increased in the country and recession threatened to wipe out the nation's economy amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
"I think that there's a recognition that we've gotten so far out of balance that's just not realistic to keep going forward as we have. We're contributing so much less to the economy than we really ought to be to the wellbeing of our fellow Americans. So it's time for us to cough up a little bit more," Disney said, speaking to CNBC after becoming one of the 98 wealthy people worldwide to sign the "Millionaires for Humanity" letter, which called on governments to tax them higher than the average population.
"Humanity is more important than our money," the letter said, calling for the solution: "Tax us. Tax us. Tax us. It is the right choice. It is the only choice." The reaction to the heiress coming out and speaking in favor of wealth tax was split on social media. While many initially started getting angry at her, soon people realized where she was coming from and that she was acting as an ally to the middle class.
"Rich Abigail Disney says tax the rich, poor white people on Twitter are furious! WTF are you even mad about? You are poor!!! For f**ks sake!!!" one wrote, while another wrote, "I like how a bunch of people, who the wealth tax would have no affect on, are so pressed about Abigail Disney wanting to pay more in taxes." A third said: "Abigail Disney is one of the few very, very rich people who see an obvious issue with the economy due to the transfer of wealth to her peers. I've always admired her. She gets it. So, idk why people are coming for her neck when she's one of a few allies in her position." A fourth person commented: "Abigail Disney speaks the truth about the wealth disparity in this country that’s devastated the middle class and people want to get mad at her...?"
Many stood up in support of Disney from the very start, lauding her action. ''Abigail Disney says the rich should pay more taxes. That’s what every patriotic rich person SHOULD be saying. Instead, the GOP screams 'socialism' if anyone suggests simply rolling back the Trump #GOPTaxScam which exploded the deficit & caused a recession," one said, and another wrote, ''Abigail Disney is representing Disney name better than the company at this point. Thank you for having vision when others do not, and a voice when others will not."
Disney said in the interview that the millionaires and billionaires of the world were realizing that they needed to pull more weight than they have done in the past. "I think that there's a recognition that we've gotten so far out of balance that's just not realistic to keep going forward as we have. We're contributing so much less to the economy than we really ought to be to the wellbeing of our fellow Americans. So it's time for us to cough up a little bit more," she said.
The documentary filmmaker further said that she understood that people who didn't sign the letter may oppose to wealth tax being implemented by the governments, but it was all being done to mend the big picture in the long run, which cannot be improved by doing charity alone. "If the world is terribly polluted, I'm not going to fix it by going in front of my house and picking up all the trash off the sidewalk. That's not the problem. The problem is systemic. We need to make this a more fair system that doesn't so much to favor the wealthy," she explained.
She added that a federal system, which should ideally have been set up to help the people that have suffered due to the pandemic, was "underfunded and starved by this insistence that we take all the money out of the public systems we possibly can."
"If we had invested more in our health systems, if we had invested more in making sure the low-income and middle-income workers had, for instance, some savings or owned their homes or anything that ensures a life that's secure, we would be doing so much better, but you saw how quickly those lines formed at the food pantries. Millions and millions of people who work full time in this country did not have enough money laid by to ensure that they had enough to eat for the next week, much less however long this is gonna last," she said.
She said that the rich, as well as the poor, were "effectively paying a flat tax across the country" at the moment. "For wealthy Americans, their effective tax rate has gone from around 50 percent in the last 40 years to around 23 percent, which is roughly what the middle class pays," she said. "I would be happy to go back to 50 percent. If that's not politically feasible, let's talk about 40 (percent), but we need to recognize that there are people in this country who are so wealthy that a 40 percent tax rate would do nothing to erode the quality of their life."