{"id":447882,"date":"2026-03-17T19:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/17\/stiglitz-al-tax-symposium-gli-usa-non-sono-piu-una-democrazia-si-alla-patrimoniale\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T19:51:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:51:45","slug":"stiglitz-at-the-tax-symposium-the-us-is-no-longer-a-democracy-yes-to-a-wealth-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/17\/stiglitz-at-the-tax-symposium-the-us-is-no-longer-a-democracy-yes-to-a-wealth-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Stiglitz at the Tax Symposium: &#8220;The US is no longer a democracy; &#8216;yes&#8217; to a wealth tax&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels \u2013 \u201cThere has been a massive rise in inequality, and this is linked to the erosion of democracy: <strong>even America has become an oligarchy<\/strong>.\u201d This indictment by Nobel laureate <b>Joseph Stiglitz <\/b>opened the<strong> <\/strong><b><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/16\/competitiveness-and-simplification-the-challenges-of-the-2026-tax-symposium-for-a-less-fragmented-europe\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">second day <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: normal\">of the<\/span><b> <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu\/road-2050-tax-mix-future\/eu-tax-symposium-2026_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>EU Tax Symposium 2026<\/strong><\/a><b><\/b><strong> <\/strong>in Brussels, the annual event organised jointly by the European Commission and the European Parliament, dedicated this year to the theme &#8220;<strong>The future of taxation: inequality and growth in the global economy<\/strong>&#8220;. Stiglitz highlighted that, over the last 25 years, more than 40 per cent of the increase in wealth has ended up in the hands of the <strong>richest 1 per cent<\/strong>, whilst the poorest 50 per cent received only 1 per cent. For the US economist, the solution to this situation lies in \u201ca more progressive tax system\u201d and in \u201c<strong>some form of wealth tax<\/strong>\u201d, citing the Danish proposal of 0.5 per cent as a concrete step towards fairness.<strong><\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>MEP <strong>Pasquale Tridico (M5S\/The Left), Chair of the Subcommittee on Taxation<\/strong> and moderator of the debate, reinforced this line of argument by stating that \u201cwe can achieve greater cohesion and more sustainable development through growth without inequality.\u201d Tridico emphasised digital transformation, explaining that artificial intelligence represents \u201ca technological process different from the past, much faster and one that does not necessarily require humans to reproduce itself.\u201d In this scenario, the risk is that part of the wealth created will not be taxed adequately, placing Europe at a crossroads between \u201cinternational tax cooperation and strategic autonomy.\u201d<b><\/p>\n<p><\/b><\/p>\n<p>On the sidelines of the symposium, the MEP presented a proposal aimed at &#8220;<strong>taxing the windfall profits of oil companies<\/strong>, which, at current price levels, are generating revenues of over \u20ac60 billion.&#8221; There is &#8220;a huge amount of revenue generated by the six major oil companies, over \u20ac60 billion at current prices&#8221;, said Tridico, pointing out that Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has proposed &#8220;at least a temporary tax on the windfall profits of these companies.&#8221; A measure which, he added, \u201cis very welcome\u201d and which the Five Star Movement \u201chas always supported.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another Nobel laureate in economics, <strong>Philippe Aghion<\/strong>, also spoke out on the need to avoid falling behind, sounding the alarm over the continent\u2019s capacity for innovation: \u201cIf Europe is in decline, <strong>its values will also be in decline<\/strong>.\u201d According to Aghion, the crucial challenge is \u201cto be more innovative and at the same time more inclusive,\u201d creating an environment in which start-ups can grow locally without having to migrate to the United States or China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nobel laureate in economics, speaking at the Tax Symposium 2026, criticised the direction the US is taking and called for action towards \u201ca more progressive tax system\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":447856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[31789,33423,30253,27603,33424,33402,29971,26326],"class_list":["post-447882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-fiscalita-en","tag-joseph-stiglitz","tag-m5s-europe-and","tag-paschal-tridico-en","tag-tassa-patrimoniale","tag-tax-symposium-2026","tag-taxation-en","tag-states-united-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447883,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447882\/revisions\/447883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}