Billions of contention: a third of Russia’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few

The wealth of 81 billionaires exceeds half of the world’s wealth. This is stated in the report of the organization Oxfam. The report shows that the richest 1% owns 45.6% of the world’s wealth, while the poorest half of humanity accounts for only 0.75%. The problem is known, old and poorly solved. Of course, significant income polarization is bad. At the same time, it is clear that “taking everything and dividing it,” as Sharikov suggested, is not an option. In an ideal world, there should be neither egalitarianism, nor such a defiant inequality. But our world is not perfect, so the rich continue to get richer, and the poor continue to count pennies. This global trend, unfortunately, is quite relevant for Russia as well.

Oxfam, a longtime researcher on inequality, reported that over the past two years, the top 1% of the world’s richest people have increased their wealth by $26 trillion, while the global figure has increased by $42 trillion.

Meanwhile, the richest people on the planet pay almost no taxes. The real tax rate of the richest man in the world Elon Musk is only 3.2%. And his closest billionaire rival, Jeff Bezos, pays less than 1% in taxes. All due to the fact that the upper levels of rates on the income of individuals have become lower and less progressive, the report notes. Plus, the services of the rich are offshore companies that legally withdraw the lion’s share of their wealth from under the tax pressure.

Despite the fact that Oxfam experts did not take Russia into account, the situation in our country is similar. So, according to the Financial Times for 2021, 35% of Russia’s GDP is concentrated in the hands of a few participants in the domestic Forbes list. It is clear that different companies use completely different research methods, but this does not prevent us from drawing the only correct conclusion: the inequality between the poor and the rich around the world is growing.

To combat this problem, international experts have proposed increasing taxes for the super-rich. According to their calculations, an additional 5% of taxes will lift 2 billion people out of poverty. Is such a scenario realistic for the world and for Russia? According to Chief Researcher of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Igor NikolaevAs cynical as it may sound, income inequality is the engine of economic development.

“It is quite natural that material well-being is an important component of our life. People tend (and rightly so!) to live better and earn more. Someone invests and makes a profit, while someone does nothing and lives solely on state payments. Income inequality in the capitalist system, whether one likes it or not, is fair. It was and will be, says the economist. “At the same time, there should be no defiant inequality – when a small group of people own huge assets. Wealth tax, progressive taxation are tools that can help close the huge gap between rich and poor. But we must keep in mind that this is not a panacea.

However, Evgeniy Mironyuk, stock market expert at BCS World of Investments I am convinced that one should not exaggerate the wealth of several dozen billionaires, who allegedly accumulate half of the world’s wealth.

-Most of them own shares in the share capital of their companies. This means that, firstly, the amount of their wealth is extremely dependent on external factors (on the basis of which investors evaluate the company), and secondly, they cannot quickly dispose of these funds: the sale of even a small part of the shares entails a drop in the capitalization of the entire company and the volume own funds of major shareholders.

– And what about domestic businessmen? In 2021, the wealth of Russian billionaires exceeded a third of the country’s GDP.

-Likewise. The Russian participants in the Forbes list have repeatedly stated that the amount of their wealth indicated in the list is rather “virtual” and that the funds can really be used only through complex schemes.

– It turns out that this is not a problem either for the world or for the Russian economy?

– Rather, yes. The importance of capital concentration for the world economy should not be exaggerated.

-What can the authorities do to make the gap between the rich and the poor smaller?

– The debt burden on individual taxes in Russia is at the global average, but the number of taxes makes the total tax burden on businesses and large corporations higher than in most countries of the world. And attempts to increase the load even more will make the risks of entrepreneurship excessive.

– Can the progressive taxation system, which is gradually being introduced in Russia, become an effective tool?

– Previously, one of the factors of its non-application was the complexity of tax administration (corporations avoided high taxes, taking advantage of gaps in legislation). However, even now it is worthwhile to introduce a progressive scale for various taxes carefully because of the transnational nature of most large businesses. When such measures are applied, the funds and the business itself flow into jurisdictions with a more loyal tax policy.