Billionaire feels guilty about being so rich

Adapted from SkyNews

Billionaire California financier Bill Gross has apologised for the wealth he has amassed at the expense of workers.

In a lengthy blog on the website of his company Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) he labelled fellow tycoons who complain about taxes "Scrooge McDucks" after a Disney character.

Calling for tax reform, 69-year-old Mr Gross, ranked 641 in the Forbes list of billionaires, said the top 1% of earners should pay more tax.

He writes: "Having gotten rich at the expense of labour, the guilt sets in and I begin to feel sorry for the less well-off, writing very public Investment Outlooks that 'dis' the success that provided me the soapbox in the first place.

"If your immediate reaction is to nod up and down, then give yourself some points in this intellectual tête-à-tête."

But, he said, he would ask the "Scrooge McDucks of the world who so vehemently criticise what they consider to be counterproductive, even crippling taxation of the wealthy in the midst of historically high corporate profits and personal income" to think again.

"Consider this: instead of approaching the tax reform argument from the standpoint of what an enormous percentage of the overall income taxes the top 1% pay, consider how much of the national income you've been privileged to make.

"In the United States, the share of total pre-tax income accruing to the top 1% has more than doubled from 10 per cent in the 1970s to 20 per cent today.

"Admit that you, and I and others in the magnificent '1%' grew up in a gilded age of credit, where those who borrowed money or charged fees on expanding financial assets had a much better chance of making it to the big tent than those who used their hands for a living.

"Yes, I know many of you money people worked hard, as did I, and you survived and prospered where others did not.

"A fair economic system should always allow for an opportunity to succeed.

"Congratulations. Smoke that cigar, enjoy that Chateau Lafite 1989. But (mostly you guys) acknowledge your good fortune at having been born in the '40s, '50s or '60s ... and having had the privilege of riding a credit wave and a credit boom for the past three decades."

He continued: "If you're in the privileged 1 per cent, you should be paddling right alongside (Scrooge McDuck) and willing to support higher taxes on carried interest and certainly capital gains readjusted to existing marginal income tax rates."

After referring to fellow US billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Warren Buffett, who recently mooted similar proposals, he said: "The era of taxing 'capital' at lower rates than 'labour' should now end."

http://news.sky.com/story/1162663/billionaire-feels-guilty-about-being-so-rich