A 板块｜财富都可疑吗？先看钱从哪里来

BILLIONAIRES HAVE never exactly been popular, but today they are loathed. Politicians in America's Congress talk about them far more than ever before, usually to decry their ill-gotten gains or their malign influence on politics, or to insist that their wealth needs taxing (see chart 1). Fundraising emails from Democrats are three times as likely to mention billionaires—and almost always negatively—as they were in 2024, according to Andrew Hall of Stanford University. “Every billionaire is a policy failure” is a common cry from the left, linking members of the ten-figure club with a rigged economy and social decay.

Yet many billionaires make their money without a hint that they enjoy questionable monopolies or political favour. Oprah Winfrey, worth $3.4bn today, has become rich because millions want to watch and listen to her. Cristiano Ronaldo's nine-zero fortune rests on scoring amazing goals. Others are less well known, but similarly impressive. Peggy Cherng, the co-founder of Panda Express, is worth perhaps $6.5bn, having built a restaurant chain that serves cheap meals to millions. Yanai Tadashi, who is worth tens of billions, built up Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo. Can you really begrudge someone who makes such great T-shirts?

B 板块｜若病灶在政治影响，药方未必是财富税

The Economist has quantified the better (Ms Winfrey, Mr Yanai) and worse (Mr Burns) sorts of billionaire wealth. Drawing on data from Forbes, a magazine, Hurun, a research firm, and Gapminder, a Swedish foundation, we have assembled a list of about 7,000 billionaires from the past 25 years. We call a billionaire's wealth “uncompetitive” when it mainly comes from industries such as gambling, construction, defence and raw materials. These sectors often depend on political access. It is hard to open a mine or a casino, for instance, without friends in the government.

Yet if billionaires have too much political power, the solution may be to change the rules on donations rather than to change the tax system. This is because the rise of the self-made billionaire greatly weakens other arguments for wealth taxation. It is now more difficult to say, as many campaigners still do, that billionaire fortunes “were never really earned”. Taxing Mr Abramovich to the hilt may seem reasonable—but Lionel Messi? And because a greater share of today's billionaires spurs employment growth and productivity gains, it raises the economic cost of losing them, if they decide to move away, or work less hard, to avoid taxation. Billionaires may be less popular, but the proposed remedies look weaker than ever.