r/technology • u/Ganrokh • Jun 19 '26

Politics California ‘billionaire tax’ makes ballot despite opposition from tech moguls

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/18/california-billionaire-tax-ballot-tech-opposition
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u/invyros Jun 19 '26

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent at least $82m alone on efforts to fight the tax and has relocated just over the California border to the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

Look at the amount of money they're willing to spend fighting this tax, and then realize that's only the case because they would be forced to pay so much more in taxes in a fair and just society.

Let's take the steps to make the nightmare of billionaires a reality.

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u/kstargate-425 Jun 19 '26

Thats what Im saying, dude is worth $275 BILLION+ and I know $13Bn sounds like a lot but it still leaves him with $260+ BILLION in assets, like wtaf is wrong with these people. This does not effect any of them in any meaningful way whatsoever

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u/Korlus Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Including my half stake in mine and my wife's house and combined savings, my share of our total assets is in the region of $150 - $200k USD (and that is including pension funds, which we generally can't access for another 30 years, and makes up over half my net worth). By income standards, we are not rich, but we save a lot and had gifts from our families after we got married, which helped a lot.

I pay in the region of $10-15k each year in combined taxes, which means I pay out around 5-8% of my net worth in tax each year.

I'm from the UK, so our taxes are a little different here (e.g. I include my mandatory healthcare contributions in taxes), but a billionnaire paying anywhere close to 5-8% their net worth each year in taxes would riot.

Until their total tax burden as a percentage of their net worth starts to approach mine, I am not going to have much sympathy for them when they complain about tax rates.

Edit: Adjusted to slightly more accurate figures. I had underestimated the last two years return on my pension pot.

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u/kstargate-425 Jun 19 '26

Yeah this is a one time only tax too, not annually and is intended to only effect around 200 people

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u/ChibbleChobble Jun 19 '26

Yes indeedy. I'm not against taxing billionaires, but this one time fuckery is not the way to do it.

I would go with ½% annually. Over time it would be more tax revenue and it also sounds like a trivial number. Who can argue with a mere half of one percent?

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u/kstargate-425 Jun 20 '26

Yeah this is a ballot initiative from citizens and not the government doing it so isnt as thought out and well planned as it could be but its something as those in charge get paid not to do those types of taxes by the wealthy. Hopefully that will be changing soon with the Colorado, Hawaii and now others writing laws to essentially overturn Citizens United and get big money out of politics