Art collector Bernard Arnault, one of the richest people in the world, expressed pain over France’s plan to impose taxes on super-large health, calling the proposal “offensive”.
The plan is the creative idea of economist Gabriel Zucman, whose proposal would allow the rich to impose a 2% tax on their wealth in particular. Zuckerman claims his plan will be recaptured for 20 billion euros ($27 billion). He previously wrote in The The The The The “Unprecedented concentration of wealth and the infinite power of this wealth distorts our democracy and is driving social and economic tensions.” guardian.
Right-wing politicians claim taxes will seriously damage the economy. Forbes says Arnault worth $156 billion Sunday Times Tax plans are “deadly to our economy.”
He went on to claim that he was “of course the largest personal taxpayer in the company I run and one of the largest professional taxpayers.”
These companies are part of LVMH, a luxury conglomerate whose portfolio includes Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Tiffany & Co. and brands such as Sephora. Through the wealth brought by LVMH, Arnault is able to accumulate an important art collection and often appears in Artnews List of top 200 collectors. He used to be the richest person anywhere in the world.
Arnault Sunday Times Also included are some personal insults against Zuckerman. Zucman, he said, was “first and left-wing activist” and showed “pseudo-academic competence.” (It doesn’t matter, Zucman is actually an academic: he is a professor at the Paris School of Economics.)
Zucman then continued to roast Arnault, urging him to respect “truth and facts.”
“With the rise of Trumpism, I saw this rhetoric flourishing, devaluing knowledge and research in the United States,” Zuckerman told France-Arcy-Pres. He denied that he was an activist working on behalf of any political party.
Others joined Zuckerman’s defense. Influential economist Thomas Piketty, once a teacher at Zucman, said Arnault was just “nonsense”, noting that between 2010 and 2025, the fate of more than 500 of the world’s largest fortunes rose by 500%.
Piketty wrote on X: “The annual tax rate is 2%, and assuming they have no income at the same time, it will take a century to get back to the 2010 level.
