Historian at Davos castigates audience of billionaires and tells them to stop avoiding tax: 'All the rest is bulls***'
'It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water,' Rutger Bregman tells super rich delegates
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A Dutch historian has received widespread acclaim after confronting billionaires at Davos over their perceived failure to pay enough in taxes.
Rutger Bregman, author of bestseller Utopia for Realists, admonished members of the audience during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland for their role in perpetuating growing inequality..
“I hear people talking the language of participation and justice and equality and transparency, but then, almost no one raises the real issue of tax avoidance, right? And of the rich just not paying their fair share,” the 30-year-old said.
“It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water.”
Mr Bregman told the assorted business leaders in attendance it was time to “stop talking about philanthropy and start talking about taxes, taxes, taxes”.
“This is not rocket science, we can talk for a very long time about all these stupid philanthropy schemes,” he said. “We can invite Bono once more, but come on, we’ve got to be talking about taxes.”
He added: “All the rest is bulls*** in my opinion.”
The historian's excoriation angered at least one audience member, Ken Goldman, Yahoo’s former chief financial officer, who stood up and complained about the focus on taxes.
“I have to say, honestly, this is a very one-sided panel,” Mr Goldman said, adding: “We’ve actually reduced poverty around the world – no one’s talking about that at all.”
He defended the status quo by saying global poverty was being reduced and US employment was at near-record lows. He asked the panel to instead talk about what "we really do to help solve inequality over time beyond taxes?”
But Winnie Byanyima, director of Oxfam and another panel-member, hit back at Mr Goldman.
“Let me tell you something: We’re talking about jobs, but the quality of those jobs,” she said, highlighting the issue of poultry workers in US, “the richest country in the world”, forced to wear nappies to work because they were banned from toilet breaks.
“The quality of the jobs matter. It matters. These are not jobs of dignity,” she said.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments