The Guardian editorial warns extreme wealth now threatens democracy, citing that the richest 1% captured 41% of new global wealth between 2000 and 2024 while the poorest half received 1%. It highlights a Californian November referendum proposing a one-off 5% levy on residents worth more than $1bn that could raise about $100bn and notes Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent $100m opposing the tax. The piece spotlights Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz’s call for a new UN International Panel on Inequality, drawing on the G20’s first-ever inequality report which described the gap as corroding democracy and blocking climate action. The editorial points to Britain’s own concentration of wealth, citing economist Gabriel Zucman’s estimate that the UK’s richest 0.001 percent, roughly 200 families, held wealth worth 5 percent of GDP in 1989 and 25 percent today. It urges Andy Burnham to back the IPI at the UN and make inequality a priority for Britain’s 2027 G20 presidency, recommending international tax reform, debt relief and measures on illicit financial flows. The editorial also observes that New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and former president Donald Trump continue to cooperate on housing and immigration despite public clashes over luxury property levies.
