Downstream: Top Economist Exposes Inequality Death Spiral w/ Gabriel Zucman

Extreme wealth concentration threatens democratic stability, as billionaire wealth has surged to 17% of global GDP, fueling a cycle where capital captures political and media influence. Gabriel Zucman, professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, argues that current tax systems are regressive, with billionaires often paying lower effective rates than the working class due to sophisticated avoidance strategies like holding companies. To address this, Zucman proposes a 2% minimum wealth tax on individuals with over $100 million, a policy designed to ensure the ultra-wealthy cannot live outside the social contract. By leveraging automatic international bank data and maintaining tax jurisdiction over citizens even after migration, this proposal would generate significant public revenue while curbing the oligarchic drift that currently undermines the rule of law and public finance.