Watch this rant against inequality at a forum for business elite

Dutch historian Rutger Bregman has become an internet sensation after he railed against tax avoidance by the world's elite at an annual event full of them: The Davos World Economic Forum.

Bregman was participating in a panel titled, The Cost of Inequality when he was asked a question about the concept of universal income.

Instead, he began his response by criticising the business leaders who flew "1,500 private jets" to Davos, in Switzerland, to "hear Sir David Attenborough speak about how we're wrecking the planet."

He then said it was time for the rich to stop talking about philanthropy as a means of social justice and instead to consider radically higher taxes on their own wealth.

Bregman used the example of the United States during the 1950s, a time when the tax rate was heavily skewed against the highest income brackets compared to the present day.

The panel took place on January 25 but has been widely shared on social media in the days since.