{"id":80333,"date":"2025-09-23T06:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T06:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/80333\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T06:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T06:03:07","slug":"bernard-arnault-says-french-wealth-tax-will-destroy-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/80333\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernard Arnault Says French Wealth Tax Will ‘Destroy’ the Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tArt collector Bernard Arnault<\/a>, one of the richest men in the world, spoke bitterly against plans for France to institute a tax on the ultra-wealthy, calling the proposal \u201coffensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe plan is the brainchild of the economist Gabriel Zucman, whose proposal would see particularly rich people pay a 2 percent tax on their wealth. Zucman has claimed his plan will rake in 20 billion euros ($27 billion). \u201cUnprecedented wealth concentration\u2014and the unbridled power that comes with such wealth\u2014has distorted our democracy and is driving societal and economic tensions,\u201d he previously wrote in the Guardian.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\tRight-wing politicians have claimed the tax would severely undermine the economy. Arnault, whom Forbes says is worth $156 billion, had a similar bone to pick, telling the Sunday Times<\/a> that the tax plan is \u201cdeadly for our economy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHe went on to claim that he was \u201ccertainly the largest individual taxpayer and one of the largest professional taxpayers through the companies I run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThose companies are part of LVMH, a luxury conglomerate whose portfolio includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Tiffany & Co., and Sephora. Through the fortune brought in by LVMH, Arnault has been able to amass a significant art collection and has regularly appeared on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list<\/a>. He was once the richest person<\/a> anywhere across the globe.<\/p>\n

\n\tArnault\u2019s statement to the Sunday Times also included some personal insults directed at Zucman. He said Zucman was \u201cfirst and foremost a far-left activist\u201d who exhibited \u201cpseudo-academic competence.\u201d (Never mind that Zucman actually is an academic: he is a professor at the Paris School of Economics.)<\/p>\n

\n\tZucman then went on to roast Arnault, whom he urged to respect \u201cthe truth and facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith the rise of Trumpism, I have seen this rhetoric flourish, denigrating knowledge and research in the United States,\u201d Zucman told the Agence France-Presse<\/a>. He denied that he was an activist working on behalf of any party.<\/p>\n

\n\tOthers rose to Zucman\u2019s defense. Thomas Piketty, the influential economist who once acted as a teacher to Zucman, said that Arnault was merely \u201ctalking nonsense\u201d and noted that, between 2010 and 2025, more than 500 of the world\u2019s greatest fortunes rose by 500 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith a tax of 2% per year, it would take a century to get back to the 2010 level, assuming they receive no income in the meantime,\u201d Piketty wrote<\/a> on X. \u201cIs that what it means to bring the French economy to its knees?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art collector Bernard Arnault, one of the richest men in the world, spoke bitterly against plans for France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[11845,53934,79,179,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-80333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-artnews-top-200-collectors","9":"tag-bernard-arnault","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}