TAXING TIMES: BILLIONAIRES, INEQUALITY AND EDUCATION
This is my latest article: a Review Article of,
We Need to Tax Billionaires, by Gabriel Zucman, Trans. Sara
Freitas, London: Basic Books, 2026. ISBN: 9781399839587.
It was published in the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, Vol.24 No.2 (September).
Abstract
In this book, Gabriel Zucman argues that there is
severe tax injustice: the billionaire super-rich do not pay their fair share of
tax. They pay relatively little personal income tax; most of their money is
hoarded away in holding companies, which, in mystical capitalist theory,
‘belongs to nobody’ and therefore remains untaxed. Zucman wants this unfair
situation remedied; the super-rich must be brought back into the tax system.
His remedy is a wealth tax. Zucman acknowledges that his plans for a wealth tax
would not solve all of the state’s fiscal problems, but argues also that it
would lessen economic inequality. Yet Zucman’s arguments for a wealth tax could
be seen as just another programme for ‘saving’ capitalism. Even though the
wealth of the super-rich rests on the education and training of millions of
workers, which Zucman acknowledges, it is argued here that there is no
guarantee that money from a wealth tax would alleviate current education
funding crises or social and health needs. Class struggle must seek to ensure
that any money resulting from a wealth tax is to be used for addressing social
needs, boosting spending on social housing and free transport, and tackling
severe problems in education – rather than giving in to retrogressive arguments
for increased defence spending. A wealth tax should be incorporated within a
programme for improving working-class lives and laying the foundations for
moving away from capitalism and its form of education, and towards socialism.
Academia: https://www.academia.edu/176451933/Taxing_Times_Billionaires_Inequality_and_Education
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/414947309_Taxing_Times_Billionaires_Inequality_and_Education and
