‘Tariff for Oligarchs’: Top Economist Urges Europe to Fight Trump by Punishing US Billionaires (www.commondreams.org)
from grimpy@lemmy.myserv.one to world@lemmy.world on 20 Jan 2026 16:26
https://lemmy.myserv.one/post/25152524

The leading French economist Gabriel Zucman is urging European governments to inflict financial pain on American billionaires in response to US President Donald Trump’s effort to seize control of Greenland, a mineral-rich island that some of Trump’s rich campaign donors see as a potentially massive profit opportunity.

“Access to the European market—by billionaires and the companies they own—should be made conditional on paying a wealth tax: in effect, a tariff for oligarchs. If Elon Musk, for example, wants to keep selling Teslas in Europe, he should have to pay it. If he refuses, Tesla would lose access to the European market.”

#world

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random_character_a@lemmy.world on 20 Jan 2026 16:34 next collapse

And I only have one upvote 😒

Palerider@feddit.uk on 20 Jan 2026 17:44 collapse

No, you have 25!

random_character_a@lemmy.world on 20 Jan 2026 19:08 collapse

…to give

supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz on 20 Jan 2026 16:37 next collapse

This would make Trump panic in the best way, it would directly undermine his aesthetic of Rich Asshole Who Other Rich Assholes Like.

West_of_West@piefed.social on 20 Jan 2026 16:53 next collapse

Treat the American oligarchy like the robber barons they are

comrade_twisty@feddit.org on 20 Jan 2026 17:01 next collapse

Tax Amazon, 50%

Tax Google, 50%

Tax Microsoft, 50%

Tax Apple, 50%

Tax Meta, 50%

Ban X, 100%

Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca on 20 Jan 2026 20:19 next collapse

Yeah, but you can do better.

Nebraska_Huskers@lemmy.world on 20 Jan 2026 20:27 collapse

Ban Facebook

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 21 Jan 2026 01:43 collapse

Seriously, at least the others, while evil, produce something of value for us.

Sorry, I’m being very disrespectful to the fan of the metaverse.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip on 21 Jan 2026 17:07 next collapse

Seriously, at least the others, while evil, produce something of value for us.

Nothing that cannot be replaced. If they all disappeared off the face of the earth, we’d be no worse off.

microcapybara@sopuli.xyz on 21 Jan 2026 17:17 collapse

Sorry, I’m being very disrespectful to the fan of the metaverse

It’s ok. Zuckerberg can just shut off his emotion chip.

Asafum@lemmy.world on 20 Jan 2026 17:06 next collapse

Europe: sorry, best we can do is specific carveouts for US billionaire owned companies in our tax code…

nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 20 Jan 2026 17:17 next collapse

This was always the answer they were just too afraid of their own rich people until a land invasion seemed imminent.

Skiluros@sh.itjust.works on 20 Jan 2026 17:47 next collapse

Forget taxing them, the ones who committed crimes against humanity (Zuckerberg with enabling the Rohingya genocide, Musk for the disastrous disorderly shut down of USAID).

And get rid of all American oligarch gang activity; Apple, Google, Meta, all of them.

bookmeat@lemmynsfw.com on 21 Jan 2026 02:29 collapse

Europe has to get the ball rolling on a tech independence from US owned infrastructure (cloud). Then they can ban them.

Skiluros@sh.itjust.works on 21 Jan 2026 06:48 collapse

Of course, not a disorderly one, a multi-staged, organization expulsion of US services.

AlexLost@lemmy.world on 20 Jan 2026 17:49 next collapse

Finally some fucking sense. Doing nothing and being mad has gotten no one anywhere. Hit them where it fucking hurts, bottom line be damned. Governments are not businesses.

UnspecificGravity@piefed.social on 20 Jan 2026 17:50 next collapse

We already know how to do this, its literally the first thing we did when we sanctioned Russia for Ukraine. Target the business interests of the people actually making the decisions.

thefluffiest@feddit.nl on 20 Jan 2026 19:11 next collapse

In addition, kick out McDonalds, Burger King and Subway. Better for general health too.

phutatorius@lemmy.zip on 21 Jan 2026 17:22 collapse

Make multinationals pay tax on their earnings within the country, and without transfer-payment chicanery. Squeeze them until the pips squeak. They’re competing unfairly with locally-based businesses who actually pay their taxes.

Whostosay@sh.itjust.works on 20 Jan 2026 19:34 next collapse

This would be the largest W of the century, but I’m going to go ahead and manage my expectations

No1@aussie.zone on 20 Jan 2026 22:21 next collapse

You could enact or enforce laws that forbid a felon, or associates of a felon, entry to your country.

Who would want criminals, or associates of criminals entering your country?

You might name such an organisation Immigration Criminal Exclusion, or ICE for short

fizzle@quokk.au on 20 Jan 2026 22:55 next collapse

Yep.

If Europe announced a 100% tariff on Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and OpenAI, Trump would be gone in a week.

r0ertel@lemmy.world on 20 Jan 2026 23:11 next collapse

It’s a super long read, but filled with nuggets that explain exactly how to hit the rich by taking away their money. The TL;DR is to repeal the country’s anti-circumvention law then route the subscription money locally.

The Post-American Internet (permalink)

there’s a third possible response to tariffs, one that’s just sitting there, begging to be tried: what about repealing anticircumvention law?

It’s hard to convey how much money is on the table here. Take just one example: Apple’s App Store. Apple forces all app vendors into using its payment processor, and charges them a 30 percent commission on every euro spent inside of an app… … Apple makes $100 billion per year on it. If the EU repeals Article 6 of the Copyright Directive, some smart geeks in Finland could reverse-engineer Apple’s bootloaders and make a hardware dongle that jailbreaks phones so that they can use alternative app stores, and sell the dongle – along with the infrastructure to operate an app store – to anyone in the world who wants to go into business competing with Apple for users and app vendors.

Those competitors could offer a 90% discount to every crafter on Etsy, every performer on Patreon, every online news outlet, every game dev, every media store. Offer them a 90% discount on payments, and still make $10b/year.

Mortoc@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 00:07 collapse

I’m a game dev and I’d love to see nothing more than Apple getting slapped down for what they’ve done to mobile gaming, but this won’t work.

Setting aside how hard bootstrapping a two-sided marketplace is, those of us that currently depend on Apple store placement and goodwill can’t risk pissing Apple off.

bookmeat@lemmynsfw.com on 21 Jan 2026 02:26 next collapse

Don’t hide behind fear of change. Just because you can’t imagine a possible future without Apple doesn’t mean no one can and that it can’t be done.

r0ertel@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 18:24 collapse

In the case of Apple, you’d host your stuff on whatever app store is the most popular in any given country. It’s sort of like F-Droid but for the normies.

What’s really interesting is the thought of jailbreaking your own tractor, opening the possibility to local aftermarket parts. Again, this would take the money from John Deere and open up a local market.

I am consistently disappointed when I hear politicians’ only recourse to anything is taxes. Remember how they were going to tax email to fix the spam problem?

Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works on 21 Jan 2026 01:41 next collapse

I know some rich assholes here in the states… Put a 1000% tarrif on everyone visiting from the US. Nobody working class can afford it right now anyway.

bookmeat@lemmynsfw.com on 21 Jan 2026 02:28 collapse

This only affects the poor. It doesn’t affect billionaires, the ones who can affect change.

inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 03:57 collapse

It’s cute you think the working class and working poor are clamoring for international trips.

I mean, do I think it would be effective? No. But to say this would affect the poor as if this would be some kind of major impact? Come on.

bookmeat@lemmynsfw.com on 21 Jan 2026 04:36 next collapse

I think you don’t have the same definition of poor as I do in this context. Poor for me means not a billionaire oligarch.

9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works on 21 Jan 2026 13:52 collapse

According to lemmy, anyone with a retirement fund and able to go on even one vacation a year, is not working class… anyone who owns their home, and basically has a net worth over $1M, is not working class…

This kind of mentality completely works against the class consciousness we need to be building…

Hell, we need to be getting people with $5M net worth on board with us (i’m just throwing arbitrary number out). The target shouldnt be the 1% anymore… it’s the 0.1%

phutatorius@lemmy.zip on 21 Jan 2026 17:20 collapse

Yeah, there are a lot of people on Lemmy who have no idea about how much money it takes to have a modest but semi-secure life in the US. My net worth is probably a lot to those clueless wonders who carelessly throw numbers around. I’m utterly opposed to the fascists in power and want them not only removed, but to face justice, and for the system to be reformed to prevent them ever getting power again. And if that means no billionaires, fine. We need decent healtcare, we don’t need money-hoarders distorting our political system for their personal gain.

The target shouldnt be the 1% anymore… it’s the 0.1%

Precisely. Or even the 0.01%. It’s a long-tailed curve and that tail needs to be chopped off.

9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works on 21 Jan 2026 18:30 collapse

My net worth is probably a lot to those clueless wonders who carelessly throw numbers around. I’m utterly opposed to the fascists in power and want them not only removed, but to face justice, and for the system to be reformed to prevent them ever getting power again.

yep… a lot of lemmy thinks that if you have a stock portfolio, you’re automatically some rich republican voter…

like i get it… a lot of people are struggling REALLY bad… but we must not fracture ourselves based on different tiers of “working class”

a doctor making $500k, with $2M in assets and investments is ALSO working class… fighting amongst ourselves is just crab-bucket mentality and exactly what the billionaire class wants us wasting energy on.

there is no war, but class war

tehn00bi@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 14:36 next collapse

Looks at my bank account…. Nope, no money for a European trip anytime soon. I need a new roof more than a trip. Besides, by the time I have the money, it’s likely going to have little value. Yay to being the new Zimbabwe

phutatorius@lemmy.zip on 21 Jan 2026 17:09 collapse

I’m a middle-class guy who grew up working-class. I like doing international travel. Slapping me upside the head will do nothing to Trump and his enablers.

Learn from what you’ve seen with Trump: kicking your allies is a fool’s game. Focus on the real problem.

Sam_Bass@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 02:41 next collapse

Tarrifs the fuck outta Tesla and spacex

Innerworld@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 03:31 next collapse

Gary Stevenson is also good

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today on 21 Jan 2026 05:12 next collapse

you can do that by siezing thier properties and thier bank accounts(including thier investments).

tehn00bi@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 14:33 collapse

I mean, most of their cash is sitting in Ireland.

darkmogool@feddit.org on 21 Jan 2026 06:00 next collapse

and why the fuck not all billionairs?

childOfMagenta@jlai.lu on 21 Jan 2026 18:15 collapse

He’s trying, in France. I’ll let you guess the reception the “taxe Zucman” gets in the (billionaires owned) medias.

Balldowern@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 07:12 next collapse

No Tariffs. tariffs can be passed on to the poor, who have no part in this invasion. Start sanctioning the Billionaires & seize their assets instead.

this@sh.itjust.works on 21 Jan 2026 16:27 collapse

Repealing anti circumvention law might be a good place to start.

ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 07:26 next collapse

Make all the IP of those billionaires unprotected in the EU. Maybe also get China on-board.

InFerNo@lemmy.ml on 21 Jan 2026 10:01 next collapse

Block billionaire’s services and nourish European alternatives.

tehn00bi@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 14:33 next collapse

The EU needs to divest its self of US technology. It’s clear we have gone down the drain and will no longer be considered a competent ally.

WhirlpoolBrewer@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 14:36 next collapse

I’m pretty sure Ireland is where all the major companies are “headquartered” and technically keep all their money there for tax reasons. Ireland could just freeze the bank accounts of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Intel, … Or do something similar if they so choose as retaliation. Would be devastating financially afterwards, but would get the US’s full attention

ygurin@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 17:57 collapse

Yeah, I don’t think that is going to happen. We are talking about Ireland… Right?

Formfiller@lemmy.world on 21 Jan 2026 17:01 collapse

The digital ID is a Larry Ellison project through oracle so it seems like the politicians really want to shove American facist billionaires into your government