Call for wealth tax as UK billionaire numbers up by 20% since pandemic
-‘Sudden explosion of billionaire wealth’ at the expense of the rest of society is ‘grossly unjust’, says Equality Trust

自大流行以来,英国亿万富翁人数增加了20%,征收财富税呼声强烈
——平等信托称,以牺牲社会其他人为代价的“亿万富翁财富的突然爆炸”是“非常不公平的”


(The Equality Trust said the number of UK billionaires had increased from 147 in 2020 to 177 this year.)

(平等信托基金会表示,英国亿万富翁的数量已从2020年的147人增加到今年的177人。)
新闻:

The number of UK billionaires has increased by a fifth since the onset of the Covid pandemic, according to a report calling for a progressive wealth tax to tackle rising inequality amid the cost of living crisis.

一份报告称,自新冠肺炎疫情爆发以来,英国亿万富翁的数量增加了五分之一。该报告呼吁征收累进财富税,以应对生活成本危机带来的日益加剧的不平等。

The Equality Trust charity said interventions by governments and central banks during the pandemic allowed for an “explosion of billionaire wealth” in Britain at the expense of the rest of society, after fuelling a boom in property values and on the stock market.

慈善机构平等信托表示,疫情期间政府和央行的干预导致了英国“亿万富翁财富的爆炸式增长”,这是以牺牲社会其他人为代价的,此前这些干预推动了房地产价值和股市的飙升。

At the onset of the global health emergency three years ago, the Bank of England and other big central banks around the world crashed interest rates to zero and pumped billions of pounds into financial markets through their quantitative easing bond-buying programmes. Aimed at softening the edges of the worst recession in three centuries by supporting businesses, households and governments with lower borrowing costs, the report found the policies also helped inflate asset prices, helping to line the pockets of wealthy investors.

三年前全球突发卫生事件爆发时,英国央行和全球其他大型央行将利率降至零,并通过量化宽松债券购买计划向金融市场注入了数十亿英镑。报告发现,这些政策旨在通过降低借贷成本支持企业、家庭和政府,从而缓解这场三个世纪以来最严重衰退的边缘,但同时也推高了资产价格,帮助富裕投资者中饱了腰包。

The Equality Trust said this had contributed to the number of UK billionaires increasing from 147 in 2020 to 177 this year, with the median billionaire now holding about £2bn.

平等信托表示,这导致英国亿万富翁的数量从2020年的147人增加到今年的177人,亿万富翁的资产中位数目前约为20亿英镑。

“This sudden explosion in extreme wealth was in large part due to measures aimed at lessening the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, as central banks pumped trillions of dollars into financial markets, leading to a stock market boom which effectively lined the pockets of shareholders,” Jo Wittams, co-executive director of the Equality Trust, said in a report published on Monday.

平等信托联合执行董事乔·威塔姆斯在周一发布的一份报告中表示:“这种极端财富的突然爆炸式增长,在很大程度上是由于央行为减轻新冠肺炎对经济影响而采取的措施,这些措施向金融市场注入了数万亿美元,导致股市繁荣,实际上让股东的口袋里装满了钱。”

“While Covid-19 saw billionaire wealth rise to levels never seen before, the construction of the economic infrastructure that has enabled this mass accumulation stretches back over the last four decades.”

“虽然新冠肺炎让亿万富翁的财富上升到了前所未有的水平,但经济基础设施的建设可以追溯到过去40年。”

The report found that the number of billionaires in the UK had risen more than tenfold from 15 in 1990, when the Sunday Times first published its Rich List, after taking into account inflation over that time period.

报告发现,1990年《星期日泰晤士报》首次发布富豪榜时,英国亿万富翁的数量为15人,在考虑了那段时期的通货膨胀后,如今增加了10倍以上。

Using inflation-adjusted wealth data from archive copies of the Rich List, it said the combined wealth of Britain’s billionaires had risen from £53.9bn in 1990 to more than £653bn in 2022. “This represents an increase in billionaire wealth of over 1,000% over the past 32 years,” the report said.

报告称,英国亿万富翁的财富总额已从1990年的539亿英镑增至2022年的逾6530亿英镑。报告称:“在过去32年里,亿万富翁的财富增长了1000%以上。”

“That we have allowed the very richest few to accrue such a staggering amount of the nation’s wealth since 1990 is a national disgrace,” Wittams said. “The UK’s record on wealth inequality is appalling, grossly unjust, and presents a real threat to our economy and to our society.

维塔姆斯说:“自1990年以来,我们让最富有的少数人积累了如此惊人的国家财富,这是国家的耻辱。英国在财富不平等方面的记录令人震惊,非常不公平,对我们的经济和社会构成了真正的威胁。

“Every year we are invited to celebrate the very richest individuals and families in the UK, while food bank usage continues to increase, 3.9 million children are living in poverty and 6.7m households struggle to heat their homes. That these are two sides of the same coin is very rarely mentioned.”

“每年我们都被邀请为英国最富有的个人和家庭庆祝,而食品银行的使用量却持续增加,390万儿童生活贫困,670万家庭为家庭供暖而苦苦挣扎。这是一枚硬币的两面,但很少有人提到。”

Wittams said inequality did not have to be inevitable. “The right policies can have a positive impact,” she said. “We call on the government to tax wealth in line with incomes, reform the financial sector and end the UK’s role in tax avoidance. Two-thirds of the British public agree that ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth and it is time the government took action.”

威塔姆斯说,不平等并非不可避免。“正确的政策可以产生积极的影响,”她说。“我们呼吁政府根据收入对财富征税,改革金融部门,结束英国在避税方面的角色。三分之二的英国公众认为,普通劳动人民没有得到国家财富的公平份额,政府是时候采取行动了。”

Tax equality campaigners claim the government could raise up to £37bn to help pay for public services if it introduced a string of wealth taxes.

税收平等活动人士声称,如果政府推出一系列财富税,它可以筹集至多370亿英镑来帮助支付公共服务。

Tax Justice UK has called on the government to introduce five tax reforms targeting the very wealthy, who the campaign group said had done “really well financially” during the coronavirus crisis and national lockdowns, rather than seek to save money with further cuts to public services.

英国税收正义呼吁政府推出针对非常富有人群的五项税收改革,而不是寻求通过进一步削减公共服务来节省资金。该活动组织称,在新冠危机和全国封锁期间,这些人“财务上非常好”。

“Tax is about political choices. At a time when most people are being hit hard by the cost of living crisis it would be wrong to cut public services further,” said Tom Peters, Tax Justice UK’s head of advocacy. “The wealthy have done really well financially in the last few years. The chancellor should protect public spending by taxing wealth properly.”

“税收是一种政治选择。在大多数人都受到生活成本危机的沉重打击的时候,进一步削减公共服务是错误的,”英国税收正义的倡导负责人汤姆·彼得斯表示。“过去几年,富人在财务上非常好。财政大臣应该通过对财富适当征税来保护公共支出。”

The campaign group, which is calling for a “fairer tax system that actively redistributes wealth to tackle inequality”, suggests five wealth tax reforms.

该运动组织呼吁建立“更公平的税收体系,积极重新分配财富以解决不平等问题”,并提出了五项财富税改革。

The measures include equalising capital gains tax with income tax, scrapping the non-dom regime and introducing a 1% tax on super-rich people’s assets over £10m – which, they claim, could raise £10bn on its own.

这些措施包括将资本利得税与所得税等同起来,废除非领地制度,并对超级富豪1000万英镑以上的资产征收1%的税——他们声称,这一举措本身就可以筹集100亿英镑。