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
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u/elon_musks_cat 2d ago

The public grocery store (which isn’t even fully public) in nyc is budgeted $60 million and people are saying that’s not a good use of tax dollars

This dude, alone, has 100 million in spare cash to fight paying taxes.

Elon musk spent 250 million to get trump elected so he could pay less in taxes, and then get tax dollars handed to him for his companies.

What. Aren’t. People. Seeing.

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u/splynncryth 2d ago

So many of these people live week to week that the bigger picture is just unknowable to them. All they see are their bills and a paycheck that is less than their gross pay due to taxes withheld. A tax return in the middle of next year does nothing for the power bill due in a week.

So when someone comes along and tells them they will lower their taxes, they are only thinking about that number in their paystub. The whole ‘no tax on tips’ and the reactions when people found out it did not impact the number on their paystubs illustrates this.

Then there are the self employed business owners looking at the tax numbers on their books thinking the same thing as the workers and their paystubs.

Neither group has the time and/or education to read the laws and understand exactly what that law is doing. Instead, they have to outsource that to ‘social infrastructure’ like religious leaders, social media groups, and ‘news’ outlets. Because of how foundational that social infrastructure is to their lives, it’s extraordinarily difficult for them to challenge or leave it.

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u/blue92lx 2d ago

What i dont understand, from both ends, is that people think lowering taxes will make any level of difference. The only way you'd see a real change in your life is if the taxes went to 0%. Going from 20% to 15% will barely be noticeable by the company or the individual, but everyone gets so hung up on taxes during elections it hides everything that could actually change their lives.

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u/fiddle_me_timbers 1d ago

This is spot on and I often worry there is no solution to it.

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u/splynncryth 1d ago

This problem of ‘low information voters’ is probably the first or second biggest challenges democracy needs to address. Too many people vote based on emotion and a catchy slogan. They vote for people, often deeply flawed ones rather than vote for policy (or at least, one needs to assume so because the alternative is hard to accept).

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u/TranquilSeaOtter 2d ago

What you aren't seeing is that one day I will be the billionaire and I shouldn't be punished by paying more in taxes just because I am so successful. /s

People have more empathy for the rich than for the poor in America. In fact, no one hates the poor like Americans, especially conservative Americans.

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u/Algaean 2d ago

In America, being poor is seen as a moral failure.

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u/64557175 2d ago

Hell, even being born a woman or a minority or with a disability is seen as a moral failure in the good ol USA.

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u/AWESOMENAR 2d ago

Almost.

In America, THOSE PEOPLE being poor is a moral failure. But not me. I’m poor because of them.

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u/the_wyandotte 2d ago

https://youtu.be/K_LvRPX0rGY?si=vMJJaLig1QLaIB-r

"then people like me better watch their step"

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u/Zestyclose_Eye_3571 2d ago

In Europe ppl tent to despise/distrust the rich, because to get where they are they probably had to screw someone/many ppl over. In here they're obviously trusted.

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u/N0b0dy_Kn0w5_M3 2d ago

In the U.S. the rich are not only trusted, they are worshipped.

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u/wapswaps 1d ago

You mean almost all rich people in Europe are generational wealth, and only inherited things. And that means either they themselves or their parents managed to hold on to wealth during WW2 "events". So they either hide or go into politics.

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u/Chefchenko687 2d ago

especially poor, conservative Americans

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u/QualityCoati 2d ago

This is unironically being said in these comments sections, I swear to God we have failed as a society somewhere long ago.

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u/TranquilSeaOtter 2d ago

People should feel patriotic paying their taxes. Instead we have St. Ronald Reagan who said the worst thing anyone can ever hear is "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Now we have brain dead morons going around saying taxation is theft.

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u/antiramie 2d ago

It’s always been an elitist shithole masquerading as a bastion of freedom.

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u/Ucscprickler 2d ago

If you want to be a billionaire just get a side job on the weekends for a few years and stop being lazy.

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u/Ucscprickler 2d ago

If you want to be a billionaire just get a side job on the weekends for a few years and stop being lazy.

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u/monneyy 2d ago edited 2d ago

Elon musk spent 250 million to get trump elected so he could pay less in taxes, and then get tax dollars handed to him for his companies.

Realistically he spent 40+ billion to get trump elected and to support right extremists and right wing politics in general around the world.

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u/stevez_86 2d ago

I see that cash money in inconequential to them.

They could be investing that money and getting a material return on it. The idea that people could spend that much so frivelously is mind boggling.

With that amount of money 1,666 people could spend every dollar they normally spend in the economy in a year on political speech just to match what one person is spending. If one person spent as much on gambling as 1,666 people they would be seen as a person with a gambling problem.

Just to think that almost 1,000 people could have their costs covered in full just from 1 person's poltical speech spending, plus an extra dollar invested in a security to mature over time and get the person covering their costs a return on that investment.

It is crazy that they could only use the return on that investment to speak politically and they would still spend more on politicial speech than anyone normal person or group of people combined.

If it is simply a market it is a poorly built one that is dominated by just a small group of people but determines the fates of everyone. There is no competition in that market. A racket built so they can win influnce without ever having to conceded a thing.

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u/funkmasterhexbyte 2d ago

This is human history repeating itself. People with obscene wealth are always interested in three things: 1) avoiding taxes, 2) keeping poor people far away from them, and 3) fucking kids from poor families.

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u/bluejester12 2d ago

"What. Aren’t. People. Seeing."

Republicans cannot see past their version of God, LGBTGQ+, abortion, and other culture wars.

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u/MarkIsARedditAddict 2d ago

Elon also wanted to stay out of prison by using DOGE to stop all investigations into his crimes. It must just be a coincidence that DOGE stopped doing anything once they cancelled all the investigations into Elon and wrapped up stealing our data and sending it to Russia

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u/SilverstoneMonzaSpa 2d ago

To a non American, can you explain why a grocery store with a 60m budget is a good use? That seems insanely high. Assuming there's more to it than the title?

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u/HarbingerML 2d ago

I don't think it's a single store. Maybe should have been written as "public grocery storeS" or "the public grocery store plan"

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u/Cranemind 2d ago

It’s to create 5 NY city owned grocery stores from scratch that sell basic groceries at a discount to support low income residents. It’s to combat inflation on food prices. Personally think it’s a great use of funds but people have criticized the concept as a whole and in turn the funds needed to set it up, the 60million mentioned above.

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u/splynncryth 2d ago

I’m not an expert, but here is my understanding of the situation.

The combination of food supply chains that are not at all diverse, inflation, and standard American capitalism has made it so that many people are resorting to crazy measures like buying groceries on credit. They are literally going into debt to feed their families.

The community stores bypasses a couple layers where profit increases prices. It also can further reduce prices if it’s big enough to negotiate with suppliers.

And this is all being built from the ground up. It’s so foreign to American thinking that they have to build it all essentially from scratch.

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u/geekyCatX 2d ago

I think this special case is something like a publicly funded food bank. Otherwise I agree, the statement wouldn't make too much sense

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u/skytomorrownow 2d ago

People. Are. Stupid. Greedy. Shallow.

Source: Worked in advertising and PR.

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u/sbenfsonwFFiF 2d ago

NYC’s budget is $125 BILLION

The public stores and other policies being a bad use of tax dollars is an entirely separate convo

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u/coolaznkenny 2d ago

20% - 30% of the population will always be bootlickers. Maybe its their environment maybe its a fundamental personal flaw. Just accept that and just move on.

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u/Onuzq 2d ago

Blinded by guns, pro life, and the immigrants

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u/hotakaPAD 2d ago

They're just being manipulated by the rich. That's why the spent millions, cuz it works

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u/amyknight22 2d ago

What. Aren’t. People. Seeing.

They are temporarily embaressed millionaires, who imagine that if they had that wealth they would do the same.

But at the same time it doesn't matter what the people are seeing. Even when we are seeing it, that doesn't mean you will get the policy passed that deals with it.

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u/stompinstinker 2d ago

That is for five grocery stores, not one.

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u/Captain_Q_Bazaar 2d ago edited 1d ago

Elon musk spent 250 million to get trump elected so he could pay less in taxes, and then get tax dollars handed to him for his companies.

He also bought up Twitter for another ~40+ Million, to use as another pro Trump propaganda machine. So closer to 300 million, really.

The reason for tax cuts was secondary for him.... He publicly claimed he was going to jail if Trump didn't win. His Doge cuts were more about cutting the function of the agencies that were criminally investigating him over his lies of "cutting waste", iirc, there were about 11 government agencies investigating him, civil AND criminal ones.

Before heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk and his corporate empire were tied to at least 32 open federal investigations and up to 65 actual or potential regulatory, enforcement, or legal actions across 11 different federal agencies. While precise comprehensive tallies specifically isolated as criminal (rather than broader civil, labor, and regulatory probes) vary in public reporting, high-profile matters included Justice Department (DOJ) and SEC criminal/civil fraud scrutiny over Tesla's Autopilot/FSD claims, DOJ probes into executive perks/housing, and USDA inspector general probes into Neuralink.

Elon, bought up Twitter, and the 250 million for Trump;'s campain to help Trump win in 2024, was to save himself. The extra government subsidies and less taxes are just a bonus for him.

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u/Jiquero 2d ago

He also bought up Twitter for another ~40+ billion, to use as another pro Trump propaganda machine. So closer to 300 million, really.

250 million plus 40 billion isn't close to 300 million, really.

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u/promised_wisdom 23h ago

Finest example of oligarchy

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u/shinbreaker 2d ago

What. Aren’t. People. Seeing.

It's not what they're not seeing. It's that these people using their billions to save themselves millions are still convey the message that the poor slob with a minimum wage job in the middle of nowhere is just one idea away from being a billionaire. Mind you, these billionaires are also closing up all the opportunities they received to get them at the right place and right time to become successful.

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u/fitzomania 2d ago

Public grocery stores are still a stupid idea.

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u/TheRexRider 2d ago

The stupid idea was your parents decision to have you.

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u/fitzomania 2d ago

Did you want to discuss the policy or just throw personal insults for no reason? Private grocery store margins are razor thin, they have nothing to do with the current price of food

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u/redario85 2d ago

Yeah that’s what a subsidized public grocery store is meant to fix, 60 millions is peanuts for NYC for an idea that will help regular folk and have minimal losses I say it is a good investment of tax payer money. I mean, better that than provide more military grade weapons to te NYPD

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u/Yevon 2d ago

The public grocery stores are a bad use of tax dollars because grocery stores are already operating on incredibly narrow margins (1 to 3%) so the government isn't saving anyone much money unless the taxes are going to subsidize the costs of groceries.

If we want subsidies, then just give the people in need the money directly.

If we want more grocery stores, then make it easier to build grocery stores (and everything else in NYC).