I think wealth tax is by far the most impactful policy governments around the world should be focusing on implementing right now. No matter where you are from, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the subject. Ask your local politicians about their views on wealth tax and keep it in mind the next time you vote.

I've gathered some of my thoughts on the topic here:

• Inequality is rapidly rising because of a nasty feedback loop in our economic system: assets generate wealth which is used to acquire more assets.
• Wealth accumulation is exponential: it starts off slow but keeps accelerating and eventually gets completely out of hand. Right now is the best time to address it regardless of when you think "gets out of hand" was/will be. It will only become more difficult to do in the future.
• If we let the economy play out unchecked, the ultra-rich will eventually own all assets. We are already seeing some early warning signs: asset prices (eg. housing) are trending upwards, and infrastructure assets are being sold to private equity.
• Extreme concentration of wealth weakens democracy and makes it difficult to address other big societal issues.
• To reverse the trend of rising inequality we must make sure that possessing wealth does not make it easier to accumulate even more wealth. Wealth tax is the only proposal that has potential to achieve that goal (that I'm aware of).
• Income and capital gains tax are not effective for taxing the ultra-rich. They are able to claim no income and borrow/refinance against their assets at favorable interest rates indefinitely. As a result billionaires often pay a lower effective tax rate than an average worker. ¹
• The initial implementation of wealth tax is not going to be a magic fix, and it must not be marketed to the public as such. If an implementation over-promises and fails to deliver, powerful people will be more than happy to use it as an argument against wealth taxes in general.
• Possibly the most important effect of a wealth tax is the increased visibility into the distribution of wealth, even more so than the amount of revenue it generates. Statistics from collecting the tax will be used to inform the public and make better policy decisions. ²

Further resources

• Capital in the Twenty-First Century - a book by economist Thomas Piketty
• We Need to Tax Billionaires - a book by economist Gabriel Zucman
• Gary's Economics - the website of wealth tax advocate Gary Stevenson
• So does private equity own everything? - a video by Good Work