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Sergey Brin pours more than $100M into fighting California's billionaire tax
- kylecazar 16d agoAt least I understand the "innovation and capital will leave the state" argument. Brin says he opposes the law out of fear California will become the USSR. This is a democratic vote, on a one-time tax, that leaves private property and corporate ownership structures intact. It's a ridiculous stretch, the motives are transparent.
- general1465 15d ago> innovation and capital will leave the state This was always such a hollow argument... where are they going to leave? Some tax heaven like Panama or Cayman Islands? South America? Are they trying to get kidnapped for ransom? These people are not going to leave, because outside of 1st world countries they will get eaten alive.
- kylecazar 15d agoYeah, to be clear I don't like that argument either. But in the case of the California tax, their concern is billionaires will just leave California for another US state.
- rayiner 16d agoA “one time tax” is pure third worldism. It’s like Chicago trying to close its deficit by selling off its parking meters. But Brin should propose an alternative tax that is sustainable.
- exabrial 16d agofairly certain the sustainability problem here is the spending problem, not a taxation problem.
- twoodfin 16d agoCA’s spending, including Federal funds, was $183B 20 years ago, before the GFC. Today it’s $539B. Total inflation has been about 64%, California’s population has grown by only about 10%. California has a spending and state capacity problem, not a tax problem. https://dof.ca.gov/media/docs/budget/historical-budget-information/summary-schedules-and-historical-charts/CHART-B.pdf https://dof.ca.gov/media/docs/budget/historical-budget-infor...
- thatfrenchguy 15d agoWe’re like, a lot richer than before the GFC in California though.
- twoodfin 15d agoThen why the need for new taxes? You’re right that California tax revenue is way up, too.
- MiroslavPokorny 15d agoKeep telling yourself that you are richer because the number is bigger. If you want to be even richer move to Zimbabwe where everyone is a zillionaire. We are all poorer than 20 or 30 years ago. Most cities are filled with people chained to work, very few people are actually enjoying time off. Roads, parks, beaches, rivers, the nice places people should be enjoying with family and friends are mostly empty but the roads and workplaces are overflowing.
- mlmonkey 16d agoI don't understand the point of a "one time" tax. What happens once the money runs out a year later? Another "one time" tax?? Why not implement a permanent tax if you want to permanently solve the problem??
- JumpCrisscross 16d ago> don't understand the point of a "one time" tax It's basically to send a message to a group of people that they should fuck off. There is a reasonable gamut of opinions about whether this is valid. But I think it's fair to say Californians are upset about billionaires, and that this is a coherent way to message that opposition. (Similar to the dumbfuck states messaging around wokeness or whatever. A narrowing minority of America is prosperity first.)
- cindyllm 16d ago[dead]
- silverFork 16d agoIf they are blocking the one time tax, would they allow for a perma one. Don't be naive. No matter what type of tax it is, they will throw money to keep the status quo. $100M is chomp change to him and he can deduct it most likely.
- mlmonkey 16d agoBut what is the point of a 1-time tax? It doesn't solve anything! It's just a slush fund for the SEIU!
- silverFork 16d agoThey pay off some debt that has piled up. Like paying off your credit card debt.
- silverFork 16d agoZillionaires troll to avoid taxes. Research Buy-Borrow-Die clause in taxation if you can. Using that clause they hardly pay any taxes so tax laws have been hacked to allow it. They pay less in percentage than people who work for Wendy's . They naturally resort to red baiting for their own benefit. $100M to him is like $100 for other people.
- KetoManx64 14d agoThe actual solution is to cut government spending and rip out the death tax for everyone, not go down the slippery slope of stealing the private property of others. But people would rather keep focusing on the short term solution that doesn't actually solve the issue.
- exabrial 16d agoJust leave the state. California has a monoparty and nearly unlimited tax revenue, but still fails to deliver the dream state the socialists desire.
- tonetheman 16d ago[dead]
- deleted 16d ago[deleted]
- fakedang 16d agoGavin Newsom vs Gavin Belsom. The tax is just Gavin positioning before the 2028 elections. Even taxing 1% of wealth annually makes more sense than this. And oh yeah, let's fund healthcare, but let's also sleep on the housing crisis and the homelessness crisis. On the other side, Prop 41 and 42 are absolute jokes. It's like Robert California himself wrote those laws or something.
- thatfrenchguy 15d agoWe do tax gross 1% of wealth, it’s called property taxes. Only applies to middle class folks in their 30s though.
- infamouscow 16d agoThis really ends one of two ways. Either California's defaults on it's unfunded pension liabilities and screws a whole generation of government workers, or there's a federal bailout and people in states like Texas and Florida stop paying federal taxes.
- clipsy 15d agoWhy is it that you consider the possibility that Texas and Florida will "stop paying federal taxes" (how?), while omitting the possibility that California itself will do the same rather than defaulting?
- infamouscow 15d agoIf California stoped, I believe that would trigger red states to do similar in protest. I don't think Texas and Florida would be the only ones. It's a different situation entirely when one state stops vs when multiple states stop.
- clipsy 15d agoIt doesn't seem like you have anything to justify these (pretty extreme) claims, bluntly.
- bdangubic 15d agothe “pro-tax people” should just run the ads with this as in “see how much they have that they can spare $100M like it is nothing - tax them” :)
- ksudb 15d ago[dead]
- nerdyadventurer 15d agoI used to admire these two people when I was a teen, but look at them now. Where is their goal to do good?. May be money really blind people. Why cannot they just spend 5% onetime? I'm wondering how much they will spend if there is recurring tax of 40%? These oligarchs have enormous power over us, at least impose 50% recurring tax as a start. In 19s tax rates were really high (even 94%)