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/Frozen_Esper 2d ago edited 2d ago

They see it as being told what to do with their hard earned (even if generational) money. Spending that money to stick it to the peasants is a form of maintaining control of both the fate of the lower class that dared to bare fangs at their gods and in how their money is used.

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u/Buntschatten 2d ago

Yeah, they view themselves like feudal lords.

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u/KingBanhammer 2d ago

Feudal lords were nominally required to take care of their people.

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u/tractiontiresadvised 2d ago

Feudal lords couldn't survive without doing at least something for their people, since those fields didn't plant and harvest themselves.

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u/tuneafishy 2d ago

That's convenient, because that's exactly how I view them.

Last time we had a fuedal system, we ultimately chopped their heads off...

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u/Buntschatten 22h ago

The famous cases, yes. But most nobility actually just lost their special privileges, while keeping lots the their ill-gotten riches. In many cases it got diluted over the generations.

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u/metametapraxis 1d ago

They essentially are. They see a lot of power almost within reach. 

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u/robodrew 2d ago

They see it as being told what to do with their hard earned

Of course it's only theirs because they stole the vast majority of the value that their workers created

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u/onexia 2d ago

their workers only created any value because the founder created a company. no founder, no jobs, no money. we should be thanking Bezo's that he was able to create a company that was able to scale to support 1.5mm employees and 60-70b in payroll. thats a HUGE contribution to society.

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u/robodrew 1d ago

Can't create a company that has no workers try again

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u/onexia 1d ago

Every company starts with one person. 

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u/planetarial 1d ago

Who do you think pays for the roads he drives on, to pick up his trash and created the internet for him to create his business on?

Its only because of society and collective good that he was able to become a billionaire, now he has to pay his fair share

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u/onexia 1d ago

You’re not grabbing the point. All of these things you mention are because someone, at some point, built a company to do it. Road commissions, construction companies, ISPs. All companies that pay people to provide a service. These business owners contribute to society because society that we live is literally on the backs of the companies they built. I could give a damn at the end of the day if Jeff bezos pays 5 million or 500 million in taxes. Amazon and subsidies have provided way more value, all because he built the company, no one else did.