All-In guys have been talking about this, basically a union in CA is trying to put a proposal on the ballot for Nov that would tax billionaires at 5% of their net worth as a 'one-time ' (cue eye roll). They need ~900k signatures to get it on the ballot and it would retroactively tax folks who lived in CA as of Jan 2026 if it passed
Apparently the rough guesstimate is that 15-20% of the billionaires in CA have already moved out as a result of the proposal (they see the writing is on the wall, even if it doesn't pass this time it'll come back in 2yrs or 4yrs time) -- net impact is that even if this passed and they collected from all remaining billionaires, CA would LOSE $10bl of net tax revenues due to the folks that have already left
Before folks chime in on 'eat the rich,' I'd like to remind them that the federal income tax was initially only applied to the highest 1-2% of earners (which everyone below that voted for because it wasn't their money being taxed) before it trickled down to the middle class as the govt kept asking for more money. Do you really think that this is 'one-time' or 'only going to target billionaires' forever?
This is the ultimate self-own as folks move out of the state (plenty of evidence in the past that these wealth taxes -- if even constitutional -- completely fail because the wealthy just flee to other states or countries). France / UK show exactly how this does not work. The wealthy be default have the most to lose and have the highest mobility. The incremental company will also not be started in CA, which tech or finance CEO wants to be subject to this?
What's the impact do you think on CA and states outside CA? And perhaps the globe?
In before the closest communist CRE posts his smooth-brained response defending why wealth taxes are awesome and why all the seized money should be donated to LGBTQ / DEI minorities
Don't forget his speshul buddy Ozymandia is there to back him up!
I think this is a stupid idea.
Unlike you, I have a brain and I bother to use it occasionally.
Actually I think the money should be used to buy more masks, more guns, and more boots for federal agents, who should be sent to Republican states to round up "illegal guns" and to murder in cold blood anyone who refuses to surrender their firearms for inspection.
"closest"
We know whose alt account this is from the spelling alone.
WSO used to have intelligent members. Now it's mostly basement dwellers: just like the Republican party!
Tech is moving to Austin! (for real this time!)
I can't imagine giving a shit about billionaires. They certainly don't give a shit about you.
Fuck em.
Wut? Billionaires moving is already a tax loss, not even speaking about the job creation impact here of founding / funding new companies in the region) means the pie just gets smaller. Sure, you get more % taxation of a smaller base but that's a terrible and unsustainable payoff
You honestly think it'll stop at billionaires? You're happy to say 'eat the rich' now, just wait until it eats you because it's coming
They don't think beyond "eat the rich", just expect said rich to sit around waiting to be eaten or get called racist if they move.
Tax flight is a well-defunct myth used to scare people. It does not matter if Zuckerburg leaves a state or a country. You can still tax every asset he owns in the state or the country. And if he flees to New Zealand or something, good riddance.
Right now, the professional upper middle class bears the entire tax burden. Most people are too poor to contribute much. Billionaires don't contribute anything. So who pays for the entire government? Working professionals, aka 99% of this website.
It has nothing to do with "eating the rich" or some manifesto nonsense. It's taxing the wealth of the upper 0.001%, of which you are not and will never be, instead of taxing all of the people actually contributing to the economy.
To be fair, tax flight is a myth because taxes have historically not reached assets, but income, and it's easy to leave assets behind and take income with you (so to speak).
If you want to tax assets, tax flight might actually become a thing.
Either way, it's more about sending a message. The message is that California isn't friendly to success. Over time, that encourages people to move elsewhere. Human capital is what makes or breaks a municipality, and demographic trends are slow to begin but hard to stop.
This is correct. Tax flight on assets is not a myth, we have seen it play out in France / UK.
Tax flight on income I would classify as not a myth but rather a very slow bleed (which means the party can keep going on for a long, long time)
Can you elaborate? What happened and what was the reaction?
Personally I'm fine having my assets taxed under two circumstances. One, that there is some specific nexus between that taxation and a public good. Taxing people simply because they have more and others have less is unethical, in my opinion. Taxing people with more in order to reinvest those dollars into a public good is far different. Do we need to repair a trillion dollars of infrastructure? Fine, do that. Do we want to expand SNAP? Fine. Do we think billionaires shouldn't exist? Fuck that, that isn't a valid reason in my opinion for taxation.
Second, we should not have a situation in which huge swathes of the population pays nothing. Every single American who is eligible to pay taxes should be paying a dollar, or some nominal sum. This connects to the point above, that we're paying for a broad public good which everyone enjoys. Everyone should pay. Those with more, those who have done better out of society by utilizing those goods, should be obligated to give more back, to perpetuate the window of opportunity for future generations. But everyone should at least have some theoretical responsibility for upkeeping the system.
If you aren't willing to stick an oar in, at the very least according to your capabilities, then you shouldn't get a say in which way the boat is being steered.
Idk - I think even with taxing assets, people may still want to live in CA. NorCal is unmatched on the west coast on its infrastructure (university’s) ecosystem (successful people), and natural beauty. Fundamentally there is a cost to live in incredible places, and if your a young entrepreneur trying to build an empire, your going to be located in a top tier city and pay whatever taxes to be there. It seems that all the head lines are around late stage companies/nearly retired billionaires moving.
I think the equilibrium for how much tax folks will stomach in California is a lot higher than people think. I mean SF is becoming one of the hottest markets in the west coast for real estate investing in spite of all the headlines, which speaks to how strong the fundamentals are. It’s hard to understand how electric SF is if you’ve never been to that city.
Death and taxes.
I think maybe all of WSO outside of the HF forum is retarded
I don’t think a state level wealth tax would work, given domestic migration is pretty easy. I’d maybe support a national one if it meant lowering income tax but that would never happen
GOP and DNC have converged towards the inevitable end state of the demographic transition model: mega retard farmer tax and spend or mega libtard DEI tax and spend
Unfortunate, because this is exactly what should happen.
The problem is that Republicans don't tax, they just spend.
Democrats at least have the good fiscal sense to pay for what they're spending. Republicans borrow and expect Democrats to figure out how to pay it back when their shitty tax policies inevitably crash and burn. The Democrats have long since been the party of fiscal responsibility.
That's an interesting sentence to say the least 😂
Yes, by all means set a precedent for government to be able to unilaterally confiscate individual's private assets and force them to account for everything they own to tally their net worth for their records (which of course, are super secure). We know for a fact this would only effect billionaires and would never be extended downward (like the income tax was) to include anyone with above-average wealth in a desperate attempt to chase $$$ as their initial targets elect to exit the state en masse. This couldn't possibly be abused and definitely isn't just Democrats in a 1-party state taking advantage of irrational left-wing hatred for successful people to try and fund their shitty failed policies (and embezzlement). /s
This already exists. You know that, right? The government can unilaterally confiscate your private assets with minimal justification and force you to account for everything that you own.
I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it isn't some dystopian possibility. It is very much real, right now.
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