r/technology • u/marketrent • Aug 16 '26

Society Bernie Sanders calls out Sergey Brin for spending over $100 million to defeat California’s billionaire tax — ‘If California passes its one-time 5% wealth tax, Brin would owe $14 billion and still be worth $270 billion’

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/bernie-sanders-calls-sergey-brin-120113695.html
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u/ChrisFromIT Aug 16 '26

Yeah there is a clause in the bill that has it so that the determination of wealth for stock ownership is based on how much shares you have or how much voting rights you have, which ever is higher. And if it is based on voting rights, the worth of those voting rights is how much share of the total voting rights you have and the market cap of the company.

So for example, if I have say 5 shares, each worth $1, but each share gives me 10 votes and thus I have 50 votes and that is 50% of all the votes. And the company total market cap is $100. I owe not 5% of $5($0.25), but 5% of $50($2.50).

And the hard part is that Brin's class of stock is not sellable or transferable iirc. So he would be on the hook for maybe $50 billion or more.

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u/nvzpxl Aug 17 '26

Oh damn. So you’re saying he’d be only worth $220 billion then? Definitely not fair.

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u/ghigoli Aug 17 '26

wtf ok stop the vote. someone needs to fix that.

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u/Still_Professor878 22d ago

I hope yout joking because he would still have more money than you will ever have or could spend in a lifetime.

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u/ghigoli 22d ago

yeah but like lets think about this if anyone makes a business suddenly you lose your ownership in the business? how does someone actually get to keep there business if there ownership is in shares?

do they just sell there business after making it?

it doesn't seem fair when its like the government deciding to take something you made because its worth something. its like saying hey you have a nice couch but you work in retail. that couch is $500 in taxes. (obviously you don't make any money with your couch nor do you intend to sell your couch but the government is forcing you to sell your couch because they say its valuable). were gonna take your couch because you can't pay taxes on it.

well i supposed its similar to house and car ownership but those actually use resources. if the business is already paying taxes why should give up your share of the business?

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u/Still_Professor878 22d ago

Why dont they use their endless legal resources to dilute their own shares, while increasing the voting rights of the shares they retain, but allow them to sell shares equal to the value that the tax requires without diluting the overall pool of shares. If that makes sense. Idk ive had a few beers.

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u/Zestyclose-Height-36 Aug 21 '26

he has the $50 billion to spare, and he will still be insanely rich.