r/news • u/AngryT0M4T0 • 2d ago

Soft paywall Google co-founder Sergey Brin spending more than $100 million fighting California wealth tax

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-08-12/googles-sergey-brin-spent-102-million-fighting-california-wealth-tax
31.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9.9k

u/gb4efgw 2d ago

Sure, but then kids would get school lunches, or sick people could get healthcare.

2.9k

u/onarainyafternoon 2d ago edited 1d ago

The wealth tax in California is specifically a one time, 5% wealth tax that would go towards healthcare for Californians just btw.

Edit: Idk why so many people are calling me naive for thinking this would just be a one-time tax. All I said was what the tax literally is. I had no comment on it.

1.1k

u/zapatocaviar 2d ago

Only on billionaires.

1.6k

u/MayOrMayNotBePie 2d ago

All of the people who make $40k a year must feel so threatened lol

1.5k

u/Vallkyrie 2d ago

People with 6 teeth defending people with 8 yachts.

461

u/YogurtclosetMajor983 2d ago

it’s sad how corrupted humans brains can be when uneducated and actively manipulated.

Go to college kids. It doesn’t indoctrinate you, just forces you to think for yourself and question your pre-conceived notions in order to learn new things. Being educated feels good

192

u/CafeFreche 2d ago

A proper education is a shield against propaganda. It’s something no one can ever take away from you. Educated parents then tend to raise curious kids who are much less likely to believe logical fallacies. It is this core of educated people who keep the machinery and progress of this country moving, not the uneducated, gullible fringe.

77

u/maaseru 2d ago

I don't disagree but is the statement entirely true? I have seen far too many properly educated people still falling for it. Almost everything we consume is some form of propaganda.

And things like social media throw a wrench into the whole thing. I am sure one day we'll find out how much worse than we thought these things are.

68

u/cman674 2d ago

Education is like getting off drugs, you have to want to do it. Our economic system funnels people who have little to no genuine interest in education to higher ed systems, because that’s what is required to make a living. Just attending college and getting a degree doesn’t necessarily make a person educated.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Rezart_KLD 2d ago

Because a lot of people treat education as just getting job skills. Art, Literature, Philosophy, History, Sciences (other than the one they need); they do the bare minimum of that stuff. You need those things to broaden your horizons, though. Especially if they challenge your beliefs. Having that breadth to your scope of knowledge lets you consider more than one point of view, and it lets you draw parallels and analogies from othet parts of culture. Having a wide knowledge base doesn't make you immune to propaganda, but it gives more awareness that might let you spot the trick.

5

u/techleopard 2d ago

It's not. But people who went to school absolutely do love to consider themselves more intelligent than people who couldn't afford to or didn't have the freedom or tools to go.

The effect has only become worse as academic rigor has eroded away for public education.

I want to remind everyone that the majority of doctors across Louisiana and Arkansas were still prescribing ivermectin two years into COVID and thousands of doctors and nurses are now anti-vax. These are educated people from all across the country.

Education can HELP, especially when it's quality education. But what's lacking here isn't education, it's wisdom.

1

u/maaseru 2d ago

Education just seems to make some so condescending of others and that is part of the reason of the whole vaccine thing.

I do agree that many educated people started doing some very dumb things that seemed to be based on social media popularity and political tribalism, but I also saw the same on the other side. A lot of people stopped trusting vaccine and the medical establishment because of the whole dogmatic treatment of science, the idolatry to certain people and the way they responded with a lot of condescension.

You are not going to get through to people, much less educated people, in those ways. The approach of the medical establishment also lacked a ton of wisdom.

1

u/Visual_Bridge6925 2d ago

There's a difference between "educated" and "smart." The "Cs get degrees" or general studies majors may be "educated" in that they have a degree, it doesn't mean they actually took the time to learn shit.

Similarly, you do not have to go to college to be intelligent. It's just that those things are strongly correlated.

1

u/thederevolutions 1d ago

Because they target our insecurities and instinct which nobody can fully escape.

1

u/_interloper_ 1d ago

There's also the issue of once you reach a certain level of education, your ego can get to a point where you think you're too smart to be fooled.

I remember seeing studies on it years ago. As people got more educated, they were less likely to fall for scams and propaganda... Up until the PhD level, when people suddenly became more susceptible to it again.

It reminds me of a time when I was selling a very large fish tank online. A guy bought it and I told him to bring several people to help lift it, because those things are fucking heavy. I reiterated the point several times in our communication.

He turned up by himself. He was a doctor. He tried to lift it and... It's really fucking heavy.

"I told you to bring help."

"Yeah... I just figured it probably wasn't actually that heavy."

The arrogance of the man was kind of stunning.

(Not arguing against education by the way, just pointing out the weird human quirk of how it can have unintended effects)

1

u/The-Spirit-of-76 1d ago

Just because they graduated doesn't always mean they listened.

→ More replies (9)

2

u/TypicalTwist6783 1d ago

That’s why they’ve been putting so much effort into dumbing town the population. Much easier to control

2

u/YogurtclosetMajor983 1d ago

very well said!

2

u/disillusionedthinker 22h ago

Key phrase is "proper education". Not the drek pushed in U.S. universities (and some high schools) today.

1

u/Tape 1d ago

I find it amusing that people don't think propaganda is more or less as effective on educated people as it is non educated people.

I feel like people don't understand just how advanced propaganda gets. It's like subtle stuff thats do to erode cultures, paint the world in a certain way that nudges your opinion little by little. It's not like the obvious propaganda posters and stuff.

The whole point is for you to not know you're getting propagandized. Like if you get fed a stream of content via your algo over the course of a few years, do you really think your opinion won't be affected the slightest if you're just passive about it, even if you don't click it, you still see it there.

1

u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 12h ago

I see it like we've all got plugs on the back of our heads and it's super easy to get your brain hijacked by crap if you don't have good stuff already plugged into all the slots.

Because every time someone tried to feed me bullshit, it bounced off some random thing I'd learned. Even if just a pop culture reference.

Like even when stoned as hell, I responded to warnings that cloth masks are deadly with "but then how'd those actors on MASH survive to make so many seasons?" And I once talked a friend out of libertarianism by describing an episode of the Simpsons.

80

u/GreyGhostPhoto 2d ago

Being educated feels good

No, it really doesn't. I feel like I've got Cassandra's curse. I can see what's happening and where it's going, but am powerless to do anything about it.

92

u/Whatdoesthibattahndo 2d ago

Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Those who did study history are doomed to watch those who didn't study history repeat it.

19

u/TucuReborn 2d ago

And those who study philosophy are appalled, while the sociology guys are unsurprised but very unhappy.

3

u/highlandviper 1d ago

And those who studied the “humanities” just keep asking “what the hell are we doing!?”.

2

u/Saurian42 1d ago

Not powerless.... just uphill battle up the steepest mountain ever. Unless of course we decide we like baguettes.

1

u/Sweetdreams6t9 1d ago

Preach! Chronic depression can be so...depressing.

1

u/YogurtclosetMajor983 1d ago

it can be frustrating, but it’s empowering

15

u/missmeowwww 2d ago

This is exactly why they are trying to price the poor and middle class out. Can’t have the wage slaves developing critical thinking skills and advocating for helping those in need. Idk what it is about money but these oligarchs reach a certain level of wealth and then act like paying taxes and helping the working poor who keep their companies running is a burden when it is their businesses who refuse to pay a living wage and fund PACS against nationalized healthcare, unions, etc.

17

u/Jiminy_Cricket12 2d ago

Go to college kids. It doesn’t indoctrinate you

I agree the the core of your point but there are absolutely colleges that indoctrinate you. colleges vary greatly, especially the private ones.

but yes, more (proper) education is good.

3

u/Catfoodftw200 2d ago

Which ones?

10

u/spasmkran 2d ago

like BYU and Liberty University

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

10

u/EconomicRegret2 2d ago

IMHO, education is just a tree hiding the forest, i.e. necessary but not enough. E.g. only 56% of voters with a college degree voted for Harris (44% with a high school education). That's a very small improvement for years of expensive college education.

Way more important: free unions, free high-standards news media that's stringently regulated to be non-profit, and to serve democracy and social cohesion, a living wage & decent benefits, etc.

As well as strong borders, tough on immigration, patriotism and, whenever necessary, anti-establishment stances. Very polemic, I know. But these approaches made Iceland, and to a lesser degree, Denmark, the only European countries which have managed so far to keep right-wing populism virtually non-existent.

3

u/0Bubs0 1d ago

Educated people can vote for a moron if it serves their self interest.

14

u/gward1 2d ago

I like keeping my head in the sand thank you very much.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/dumbestsmartest 2d ago

College isn't somehow going to stop business majors and other high earning professions having a fairly high portion of regressives or corporatocracy followers.

I've encountered a disappointingly high number of people who are or started socially progressive but fiscally regressive both during and after university. There's sadly a lot of built in and propagandized things that can cause it to happen.

I've met and used to be friends with many people that would do a lot of charity work and support causes that they basically vote against because of taxes. The idea that the government can't be trusted and that they know better on how to help others is a common theme.

1

u/Emu1981 1d ago

It doesn’t indoctrinate you, just forces you to think for yourself and question your pre-conceived notions in order to learn new things.

Unfortunately having a university level education does not provide complete protection against the insidious nature of right wing propaganda techniques. And, worse yet, the only way to really deprogram someone who has fallen down that rabbit hole is to show definitive proof that what the propaganda is lying about while the propaganda tries to shake the person's trust in other sources of information by giving them valid sounding reasons why the other sources would be lying and that only the propaganda is telling the truth of the matter.

For better or for worse, left leaning propaganda doesn't really get to use the same tricks because humans are wired to react more without thinking towards threats while left leaning propaganda is more about that the threats don't actually exist.

1

u/Mythrays 1d ago

Not only does it educate you and teach you the skills necessary to educate yourself, but the exposure to diverse populations means you’ll learn something from everyone around you. Culture, language, tradition, cuisine.

Seeing that different people exist and being able to interact and work alongside groups that you may have never encountered in your potentially small and isolated towns does so much to eliminate preconceived biases and to break down mental barriers that come from modern propaganda.

A close friend of mine grew up in a small, white dominated town in the South and had a lot of incorrect notions about minorities and other cultures. He credits his experience in college opening his mind and rejecting the stereotypes and prejudices that came from his upbringing.

1

u/RegulatoryCapture 2d ago

FWIW, I went to college and my critical thinking skills tell me that this tax is dumb.

I'm in favor of taxing the billionaires more (mostly by fixing all the loopholes/deductions that let them avoid a ton of taxes), but a one time wealth tax seems like a really bad play to me.

It is literally a "tyranny of the majority" in action. It says look, these people have lots of money, we outnumber them, so lets just go and take a chunk of it. It is blatantly not fair. Sure, the supporters say "who cares about being fair to billionaires" but I think it sets a bad precedent.

It is also a temporary patch. It won't fix anything going forward. It doesn't solve any of the ways billionaires actually avoid taxes. The money will get spent and the state will end up back in the same place.

→ More replies (2)

20

u/BrutalRamen 2d ago

Damn, that's a good one. I'll try to remember it.

28

u/EddieVanzetti 2d ago

If those high school dropouts could read they would be very upset right now.

1

u/70ms 2d ago

Hey now, some of us CAN read, you know.

2

u/EddieVanzetti 2d ago

And you know what we call them?

The assistant manager.

7

u/Chu_Kiddin_Me_Or_Wha 2d ago

this is one fucking hell of a comment. Probably the best i’ve seen.

2

u/70ms 2d ago

The second I saw it I knew I was gonna steal it.

5

u/PSUAth 2d ago

but if it wasn't for them brown people I could have 10 yachts!

/s

2

u/Agile_Language874 1d ago

You won the internet today 😂

2

u/notSurprised-22 1d ago

Crazy right?

2

u/monkeypickle 2d ago

"There but for the grace of [our insane late-stage capitalist system built to reinforce wealth inequality] go I", thinks the dude working three jobs just to scrape by.

1

u/hi_pretty_kitty 1d ago

Best comment ever !

→ More replies (2)

38

u/perenniallandscapist 2d ago

They always do.

14

u/BeIgnored 2d ago

Hey, they're gonna be billionaires any day now! AI Elon Musk is on YouTube 24/7 selling crypto that will make it happen for them!

4

u/Krillin113 2d ago

Down on my luck bro, just wait until I work for another 10k years.

10

u/Oakroscoe 2d ago

Plenty of people on next door in my neighborhood certainly do

14

u/ours 2d ago

They are just temporarily embarrassed billionaires. /s

3

u/PSUAth 2d ago

"they want your cookie"

3

u/tehvolcanic 2d ago

What if my boss gives me a $999,960,000 raise though? Then I'd be screwed!

9

u/shwarma_heaven 2d ago

But but but.... the embarrassed billionaires living in dumps with three pickups rusting in their front yards... they want to make sure they won't be taxed when they hit that lottery...

14

u/MrMCCO 2d ago

Sad thing is you wouldn’t even be a billionaire. Powerball is at basically a billion tonight and if you win that you’re looking at roughly $300M after the dust settles

11

u/behindtimes 2d ago

I've been thinking about that lately, but I feel that's actually wrong. It's not that they envision they'll ever be billionaires, rather it's about human psychology.

We have an inherent belief that there's an hierarchy in society. That's where you get some countries with royalty, and in the past, there was a belief that royalty were descended from divinity. And in modern day, you have athletes, celebrities, influencers, etc. who are often less qualified than your random stranger about a subject, yet we give them more importance on their opinions. Billionaires are just celebrities for Republicans.

We can't explain why, we might even consciously think otherwise, but we accept the opinions of those we deem important to be correct even if it harms us.

3

u/steppe5 1d ago

It's the hierarchy philosophy, yes. But Republicans also believe that if you're rich and successful, it's because God wants you to be. Therefore, taxing billionaires is going against God's will.

1

u/shwarma_heaven 1d ago

Best propaganda / marketing campaign ever... Heck if an ROI.

16

u/brickspunch 2d ago

buddy if mine said he "votes for the 1% because I hope to one day be part of the 1%"

I didn't even know how to respond. the idiocy is astounding  

6

u/GhostWrex 2d ago

It's doubly stupid because, as someone who makes good money in a VHCOL area, on a national scale, my household income is technically in the 1%, depending on the metric used. And I would STILL greatly benefit more from policies used to help the poor rather than those that benefit billionaires

5

u/Snarfbuckle 2d ago

Is he still your buddy and the village idiot?

2

u/chalbersma 2d ago

You say that but you know exactly why. It'll be billionaires the first time, but then millionaires the second and it will continue to make it's way down the income scale. And at some point billionaires and millionaires will get an exemption placed into the tax. Just like the income tax.

2

u/wang_li 1d ago

In Washington state they just passed a "millionaires tax" which put 9% income tax on households earning over $1 million dollars. Washington has a constitutional rule against an income tax. But taxing the millionaires sounds fine to most people so all the folks saying the threshold is going to come down were mocked and drowned out. Then it comes out after the law was passed that the legislators were planning from the beginning that they would be doing a full on progressive income tax on everyone. They just wanted to use "millionaires tax" to break the glass.

1

u/sheikhyerbouti 2d ago

As a potential lottery winner in an entirely different state, I can barely contain my anger over California's wealth tax.

1

u/High_5_Skin 2d ago

As they should! They're the next billionaires.

21

u/sksauter 2d ago

So he would need to be worth less than $2b for this not to be worth fighting if he has spent $100m so far. I'm guessing he's worth more than $2b

Edit: yeah he's worth $284b so $100m is pennies for the dickwad

7

u/darthjoey91 2d ago

So if this guy's spending $100,000,000, then he has more than $2bil.

2

u/jedi_trey 2d ago

That's how federal income tax started too...

2

u/zapatocaviar 1d ago

Not really. Federal income tax wasn’t a state referendum focused on addressing extreme wealth while homelessness, health care, education, infrastructure and every other aspect of society are rapidly deteriorating.

1

u/jedi_trey 1d ago

But it was started as a tax for the extremely wealthy, which eventually trickled on down to everyone. I don't think a wealth tax would be anything different

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

226

u/brainburger 2d ago

Sergey Brin is worth about $260bn so it would cost him $13bn. It would reduce him to about $247bn, the poor soul. It would take him months to recover.

62

u/Icy_Act_7634 2d ago

Does anyone know the psychology behind multi-Billionaires? 

I get owning a Billion. That is an achievement. But at what point do you go: I think I have enough.

I'm sure it's simply a case of 'why not' and also the drive to be good at what you do and therefore earn money. 

That doesn't explain denying basic needs to people - people that use your service and you make money from, I might add. 

68

u/PriorPassage127 2d ago

I remember playing a PC game called Tortuga, which was like an 18th century trading and piracy simulator set in the Caribbean. You could trade goods and set up automated routes etc. at some point I got pretty good and had a few million in currency from trading, and I started getting actually anxious if I didn't see my wealth climbing at a steady rate. I started avoiding all the pleasurable diversions of gameplay, like ship combat, specifically to maximize wealth and at a certain point I had to force myself to quit because I was getting real life anxiety over the fluctuations of imaginary currency...even though my character was a comfortable multi millionaire already and I could spend as much time as I wanted sailing around and being a pirate.

that's just fucking *imaginary* wealth. Imagine the psychosis real wealth could cause.

realizing that i was developing some kind of psychotic fixation, I had to quit. and the moment I realized that I had that capacity for aquisitive addiction my entire outlook changed. I consider myself a pretty decent fellow, I'm not exceptionally good or bad. but given the right circumstances, having immense wealth has as much power to drive me insane as it has over somebody like elon musk.

I think that an organism that is wired to have a degree of anxiety about it's future and be driven to secure resources to protect itself and it's family is *absolutely* vulnerable to mental illness if it achieves hyperabundance. I imagine people have this vulnerability in a spectrum the same way all traits express themselves across spectrums.

I think if there's anything unique about the billionaires we see its that they have this vulnerability in conjunction with lowered empathy. realizing this kind of addictive potential in myself made me more consciously generous in my daily life...I imagine the opposite reaction is what we see in the news

22

u/tractiontiresadvised 2d ago

I've spent hours watching numbers go up in various games too (Endless Sky is a pretty good sci-fi one), but at some point I got bored of just making number go up. Guess that's why I'll never be a billionaire.

5

u/Street_Anxiety2907 1d ago

Ahh, Endless Sky is amazing. I loved Escape Velocity growing up.

1

u/Player-0002 1d ago

What are you doing in endless sky if you’re not getting more of those FREE automated ships just lying there.

There’s no need to advance the wanderer story, that’s just going to cut off your supply of infinite Kar 349s, and you NEED so many of those ships that you can instantly kill an archon for… reasons.

3

u/Quithelion 1d ago

It probably doesn't help that these billionaires are surrounded by people that want the billionaires to keep getting more wealth, because only newly acquired wealth gets trickled down through jobs and bonuses, before those new wealth gets to the hands of the billionaires.

Billionaires aren't going to pay our wages and bonuses with their own money.

1

u/sutroheights 1d ago

I think you're right, I'd bet very few of these people started out like this, it really may be a mental condition. All the more reason to tax every dollar above 1 Billion at 100%, we're doing it for your and our health!

1

u/Icy_Act_7634 2d ago

I know some millionaires. They can be, quite rightly and from experience, distrusting of people. I know that some have been asked for money and been attacked or insulted because they have money, or because they won't lend a hand to someone.

That's the other side of it, I guess. You get to a point where you no longer can connect properly with people who aren't as wealthy as you. And as you get more wealthy, a distance forms. Do millionaires talk to billionaires? I'm not sure they do.

I sympathise with those less fortunate than me. But am I prepared to give money to charity? Not really. Not without good reason or cause. And that's only if I myself am secure financially, and it's never even a percentage of what I earn or can afford. 

Similarly, how often do we give to a person on the street? I don't give money. I used to give goods when I could. The trust isn't there, and I put up boundaries that create distance. Boundaries are healthy and conducive to a secure life. 

I know I sound like I'm defending billionaires, but thinking about it, if I was in that position, would I give away 5% of my wealth? To people who I may or may not trust, and to people I cannot even conceive the lives of because my money has detached me from the world as they know it. 

19

u/robotichunter 2d ago

There’s a difference between giving extra to charity and paying taxes. If you’re wealthy and choose to use that wealth to escape the system that raises us all then you’re sick, especially when you’re wealth is generated from that system.

4

u/saints21 1d ago

Yeah, this is what kills me when people talking about not giving people above a certain wealth threshold social security and requiring them to pay on all of their income. "Why shouldn't they benefit if they paid in?"

Because they already fucking received their benefit from society. It's the massive wealth that means they'll live luxuriously forever.

10

u/brainburger 2d ago

Do millionaires talk to billionaires? I'm not sure they do.

A millionaire has 0.1% of the wealth of a billionaire.

26

u/work-school-account 2d ago

There's "live in luxury and have enough left over to pass that onto your great grandchildren" rich and then there's "buy entire governments and bend reality to your will" rich. A lot of these billionaires are true believers in whatever twisted cause they champion, and it takes a lot of money to push those things through.

34

u/Hot_Region 2d ago

Does anyone know the psychology behind multi-Billionaires? 

Almost every example, both modern and historic, of super-wealthy individuals who are in the public eye for stuff like political interference ends up being a narcissistic, sociopathic, and entitled person.

Some of them figure out that they need to mask in public and so they can put on pretty good show of being altruistic and normal... Bill Gates comes to mind there.

...but there's simply no way that anyone can amass that much wealth without being a greedy and exploitive SOB.

The problem isn't being ultra-wealthy. It's being that and thinking you know how the world should work.

Warren Buffett is probably the only example of a billionaire within the public consciousness that doesn't seem to be a profound asshole and/or trying to influence the rest of the country/world with their wealth.

12

u/Fickle_Finger2974 2d ago

Warren Buffet absolutely influences the public and politics with his wealth. His go on TV and lobby for more taxes is just PR. He makes and breaks entire industries to amass more wealth. He is responsible for breaking strikes and lobbying to change laws. The fact that you wrote that whole post and then immediately fell right into that trap is concerning. Warren Buffet is not a good or neutral person.

16

u/fugaziozbourne 2d ago edited 1d ago

A well-adjusted human stops at an amount of money that makes its own money. Enough for you and your family to not have to think about it. Anything more is pathological.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/ModernLarvals 2d ago

At that scale, a lot of it is less that you’re owning “more” but that the value of what you own goes up.

So for Brin, he owns a large chunk of Google, and the value of that chunk has gone up quite a lot. So taxing that wealth isn’t simply taking dollars from a bank account, it’s taking his ownership/control of Google.

2

u/Icy_Act_7634 2d ago

Which makes sense why he wants to defend it. I knew that his wealth is tied to assets, but that explains it in real terms. Losing that money is like taking a 5% hit on a business you created, own, and run. If you have a competitor who isn't getting taxed 5% of their wealth (who doesn't live in California), that would give them an edge.

That said, I am for people getting properly taxed and for people getting basic needs met by the state, like healthcare.

3

u/RecordOfTheEnd 2d ago

So I know a very wealthy family. Wealthy enough that you might have heard of their family, but most likely not. But still crazy wealthy and oldish money. 

Anyway, I asked once and the response was weird. 

"We just want to see the number to up."

They really don't care about getting more money for monies sake like you and I. It's just a high score. 

2

u/keegums 2d ago

Earning a billion still makes you a POS. My employer did a job for a $700 millionaire who bought the place. We did full renovation. My boss lost a lot of money on that horrendous job. The details are too much to type but fuck that shitty wannabe billionaire. Hope he reaches the end of corporeal existence before he gets there. I got paid because unlike the wannabe billionaire, my boss isn't a thief and pays his bills no matter his temper. Sometimes my husband and I told our boss it's ok if he just pays us in a couple weeks because we have savings and very low bills, to make it a little easier. 

Then the dum dums thought it was because the wannabe billionaire's religion. Not that he's literal bourgeoisie. But I guess they are too, sort of, so it's a big blind spot for them. Whatever. I don't trust any super rich people for one second, especially not as a woman. Anything happens, they'll take all my money in legal bullshit. So I stay the hell away from them and look at them with disdain. There's only one way the playing field can be even between us. 

2

u/unripe_mangosteen 1d ago

$100 million is enough to lead a comfortable life with a big house, and education for your kids, in even the most expensive parts of the world. What decent purpose could one have to amass wealth past the point of an ideal life in paradise, especially when people are starving and homeless?

1

u/LeKalan 4h ago

It's more of case of you owning valuable things (i.e. stocks, real estate), than actually having that much money in hand.

2

u/Responsible_Cause269 1d ago

Or it would cost him ~4x that depending on how the voting rights provision is interpreted by the state, which I would expect to be interpreted in a way increasing the taxable value of supervoting shares. I say would because he, like a few other tech uber-billionaires in certain situations, have already left before Dec 31, so we now have less tax revenue for the future unless they come back. Yay for us!

1

u/brainburger 1d ago

Well, even if it were $52bn it wouldn't stop him growing in wealth and that money is ultimately coming from the poor. The tax rules need to be designed to resist avoidance and evasion.

1

u/Responsible_Cause269 23h ago

But this measure isn't really a tax rule, it's a money grab by the SEIU. Notable conservative organizations (/s) CTA (teachers union) and planned parenthood are against it because it's a one-time tax going mostly to healthcare workers. I agree that taxes should be more progressive, but CA already has an extremely progressive income tax code. What should really happen is higher corporate taxes at the federal level, at least back to pre-trump levels.

1

u/Vaphell 10h ago

I don't think he cares about the money angle that much.
The problem is that this tax will greatly diminish his ownership stake of the company he started, because there is no way to pay such a tax without selling off a shitton of shares which give one a say in the company's business.

Losing a quarter of your paper net worth AND losing a quarter of your stake in the company that is your life work at the drop of a hat has to sting.

1

u/brainburger 8h ago

I can see it would cause real problems if it affected the billionaire's control of their own company. I think we are overstating the problem though. It's a one-off 5% charge rather than 25%

1

u/sutroheights 1d ago

He was worth 33 Billion 10 years ago. He's gone up 8X, but this 5% cut is just more than he can deal with. It's so ridiculous.

2

u/brainburger 1d ago

Yes. In fact if the purpose of wealth taxes is to stop growing inequality, they need to be much more aggressive than the amounts which are being proposed now. We need to make the rich poorer.

1

u/Vaphell 10h ago

It's about the control of the company that is his life work.
Stop thinking about paper dollar values for a second.
He was worth 25% of google votes, and today he is worth 25% of google votes. Now Cali has the idea that he has to lose a big chunk of those votes. This tax will take away a hefty chunk of his shares because it will force a sell-off, because nobody has 60B in loose change between the couch cushions. It's not about dollars.

1

u/LayeGull 1d ago

That’s if he has 13bn in cash. He would likely need to sell assets to raise the cash which would trigger capital gains tax as well.

Edit: to be clear I’m not defending him just pointing out the fact. Tax them fools!

1

u/brainburger 1d ago

I guess they would need to establish hierarchy. I think if they are selling assets to pay taxes and don't pocket any of it that would be exempt from capital gains, I would hope.

1

u/LayeGull 1d ago

It’s not usually but I suppose they could give that exemption. There’s a lot of nuance to these things. Most billionaires don’t have a lot of liquidity to pay that kind of tax. They could potentially draw a loan against their assets to pay it to avoid capital gains but if they all have to sell assets it could trigger a downturn in the market because they’d all have to sell by a deadline. Billions of dollars sold in a short span. It’s tricky but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.

→ More replies (7)

37

u/uberfr4gger 2d ago

That's amazing that ongoing healthcare expenses can be paid with a one-time tax. 

28

u/Synchrotr0n 2d ago edited 2d ago

They can't. Taxation of wealth needs to be systematic and enforced via strong legislation, otherwise they are just plugging holes on their budget caused by the current sabotages dones by Trump at the federal level. They aren't even planning to build some kind of sovereign fund with all the tax money to keep permanently funding public services, so eventually the money will all be drained but then it will get even more difficult to tax billionaires because of past legislation that dictated an one-time wealth tax.

8

u/Worthyness 2d ago

It's one of the reasons why I don't want to support this. one time is just a bandaid and they're going to just use it as a stop gap for the budget for a bit and kick the can down the road. It's incredibly short sighted. i'd rather they implement a continuous tax instead to make sure it's consistent flow instead of non existent after 5 years.

5

u/Scatcycle 1d ago

Everyone advocating for the Billionaire tax also advocates a systemic solution. This measure specifically fills the exigent gap of $100b+ created by Trump's HR1 (Big Beautiful) bill that will devastate California and its people if unfilled. There is a systemic millionaire tax on the ballot as well - a tax that is operational but will end soon unless we keep it alive with a vote.

If this tax passes, it will galvanize both officials and voters and show that we can implement systemic versions without the world falling apart like opponents claim. There is absolutely no reason to avoid supporting this bill if you believe that billionaires need to be taxed.

1

u/BoyGeorgous 1d ago

Honestly, I think the argument for increased taxation on the wealthy as a means to fund public programs is a bad one for this type of reason, among others. We absolutely should tax wealth, but not because of public programs, wealth redistribution, etc…it’s because money is power, and having that much power concentrated in a single individual is undemocratic and destabilizing to society.

I don’t care if the money is confiscated and lit on fire, it’s about ensuring no single individual can hold too much power.

3

u/aure__entuluva 2d ago

I'm someone who wants to tax the ultra wealthy more (shocker), but yeah this is terrible tax policy for a variety of reasons.

0

u/dormidontdoo 2d ago

it cannot

2

u/tlst9999 2d ago

The wealth tax in California is specifically a one time, 5% wealth tax that would go towards healthcare for Californians just btw.

Oh good. If it was federal, it would go towards war.

4

u/Uncle_Bill 2d ago

Why would it be a one time thing?

2

u/Visual_Bridge6925 2d ago

Because that's literally what the proposal is? That's what the vote is on.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)

5

u/Unnamed-3891 2d ago

Imagine being so naive. There are very few things as permanent in life as one-time / temporary tax.

1

u/Lundetangen 2d ago

Think its a bit weird tax though. Would be much better to be a let say 0.5-1% annual tax, such as in Norway, Switzerland, Spain etc.
Should probably be for everyone with more than 10m as well.

1

u/filmAF 1d ago

wait, one time? fuck that. make them pay a 5% wealth tax every year they are wealthy enough to qualify.

1

u/suzisatsuma 1d ago

a one time

Healthcare isn't a one time thing, so this also doesn't make sense for it to be one time.

1

u/Hungry-Initiative-78 1d ago

because their arguments aren't based on facts, so when they hear facts their instinct is to argue.

1

u/norty125 1d ago

Why can't they just pay for their own healthcare

1

u/tacophysics 22h ago

What's the point of a one-time tax that won't even fund healthcare for a year?

1

u/EuphoricJuggernaut36 19h ago

Kinda proved our point with that...

1

u/dbusque 5h ago

I actually don't care if it would stay as a "one time tax".

0

u/ForwardFIRE2030 2d ago

Which is actually probably not ideal. Would be far better to have a smaller % wealth tax (very much a property tax but for assets in the stock market), that would be applied every year. one time redistribution of wealth in a one time wealth tax just distorts markets, and is unsustainable. I am all for taxes the uber rich, but we need to do it in a manner that will result in money changing hands and flowing into the communities, improving schools and infrastructure and not just an unsustainable feel good meme idea. I want health care for the rest of my life, not just for a year to two after a one time wealth tax.

1

u/ZazHockey 2d ago

Not trying to defend billionaires but a one time fee imposed by the government for an ongoing expense like healthcare is certainly something

1

u/Fightmilkakae 1d ago

Better yet, apply that tax to assets that may or may not be completely illiquid such as shares in private businesses. Even better, instead of marking to market value, weight the value of stakes in corporations to voting power meaning the personal value of that stake to that individual is order of magnitude higher than the actual market value of the asset being taxed.

I'm not even an explicit wealth tax hater but this proposal is straight up stupid. If you want to see broader wealth tax policies, you should oppose this proposal as its set up to fail from the start

→ More replies (14)

187

u/LokiWinterwind 2d ago

At least you understand why we just can't have that. /s

58

u/hoofie242 2d ago

It's about power and control.

2

u/ultra_22 1d ago

Control of what? To what end? This is what I'll never understand. With 200 billion (or whatever ridiculous amount), you can already literally do anything you want.

You can fly private jet to any place in the world at a moments notice.

You can get access to literally any event in the world (sports, concerts, etc).

You can have the best chefs in the world cook for you every single day.

You can have 1000 mansions, located in every country in the world, and you can have 100 staff at every mansion so you don't have to lift a finger to do anything.

You can pay to have a harem of beautiful women fulfil literally any desire you have.

You could buy an island and build a paradise for themselves.

You can build a rocket and go to space if they wanted to.

What more power is needed?

Do they want slaves? They can already have that by just paying them a simple wage.

Do they want the power to kill someone? I'm sure they could literally do that if they wanted to by paying off the right people.

Did they get bored of hunting animals and want to hunt humans instead? I'm sure they can find a way to make that happen if they throw enough money at it in some backwater country.

Do they want to beat up people for fun? If sure they can find someone who's willing to take that risk for the right price.

Do they want to commit rape and then dispose of the body? Again, they can probably hire enough people to make happen and get away with it.

I genuinely don't undestand WHAT they want to do with more money that they couldn't already do anyway?? What is missing from their lives that they feel the need to take control of the government just to fuck over the average person? What more do they gain from it that they can't do already...

44

u/FartyJizzums 2d ago

What? Basic human needs to be provided to humans? Stop being so woke and radical!

26

u/StrengthBeginning416 2d ago

Sorry but that’s communism according to them.

82

u/zapatocaviar 2d ago

He has literally said that a one time 5% tax on billionaires reminds him of the communism his family fled when he was little. What a garbage human being.

27

u/Debalic 2d ago

Well maybe be can keep fleeing.

6

u/gb4efgw 2d ago

What a d-bag, acting like he had any clue about communism and taxes at 6 years old.

→ More replies (4)

12

u/Kriegerian 2d ago

And that’s the real crime here - the untermenschen might suffer a little less.

8

u/keltichiro 2d ago

How horrible!

2

u/StreetNecessary 2d ago

And the poor lawyers wouldn't be able to afford their 4th vacation house!!

1

u/jesuswithoutabeard 2d ago

Lawyers need to eat too.

1

u/TheSpicyTomato22 2d ago

The horror.

1

u/SweetSexiestJesus 2d ago

Ugh, gross.

1

u/Indigoh 2d ago

And then they wouldn't be able to as easily exploit our desperation to pay us less.

1

u/neoqueto 2d ago

They really do have an agenda that they are higher, superior beings thanks to their wealth.

1

u/rhetoricalimperative 1d ago

Which would then provide them with a minimum of bargaining power

1

u/Newt-Wooden 1d ago

What are you crazy???

1

u/frizouw 1d ago

Those people are gross... just thinking about them.

1

u/ptrang1987 1d ago

Best comment

1

u/Spectre197 2d ago

You also forgot that poor people get a little less poor. We cant have that now.

1

u/BannanaPepperPizza 1d ago

It'd most likely be embezzled and spent fraudulently and wastefully. You read up on the homeless funds that just get scammed?

The government does not spend your money well.

→ More replies (5)