Google cofounder Sergey Brin has spent $102 million to fight California’s proposed billionaire tax—he could owe $13 billion if he loses

[u/Logical_Welder3467]

https://fortune.com/article/how-much-has-google-cofounder-sergey-brin-spent-to-oppose-california-billionaire-tax-102-million-owe-13-billion-if-loses/

[u/williamgman]

A very wealthy person once told me they'd rather pay to fight it rather than pay the tax - even if it was a wash. It's the principle of it.

[u/apricot-pancakes → u/williamgman]

And you said, “What was that about principles?”

[u/___Art_Vandelay___ → u/apricot-pancakes]

Their principles go to another school; you wouldn't know them.

[u/GRONDGRONDGRONDGR0ND → u/___Art_Vandelay___]

Is this the same latex vandelay industries?

[u/Zestyclose-Height-36 → u/williamgman]

the only principle they have is greed. California would not need the money if the wealthy did not buy their way out of paying any taxes at all so much.

[u/mylittlehecarim → u/williamgman]

I think about the billions that oil companies have spent to lie about climate change rather than just doing better

And I’m suppose to think these psychotic cockroaches are good people who provide to our country? I’m suppose to think that we can live equally with these insane fucks?

[u/ideologyunderstander → u/mylittlehecarim]

While also keeping renewable energy down

It's utterly fucked that Redditors seriously are so propagandized against China that they are unable to realize its efforts are the only hope we have against climate change. Because its political structure isn't beholden to capital, it doesn't have to do what the richest fucks want, and can plan long term. The result is it now produces more solar panels per year than the entire EU has installed at present.

Despite that I've had redditors tell me how much they suck and um actually the EU is a leader in renewables. No, it isn't, and capitalism leading our political systems to be beholden to the richest fucks (in this case oil companies) is directly related to why that isn't true

[u/mylittlehecarim → u/ideologyunderstander]

Doesn’t china have wind farms in the middle of the ocean as well? On top of having the largest solar farm.

China has invested so much into its people and country meanwhile we just have wars and a country that believes corporations deserve rights 

[u/madmaxx → u/williamgman]

It’s such a shitty thing to do.

[u/Battystearsinrain → u/madmaxx]

Pretty much boiler plate for billionaires.

[u/Existing-Base-417 → u/williamgman]

And what principle is that? Do they see taxes as inherently giving the “less successful” a break? I never understood their aversion to paying their fair share.

[u/Waiting4Reccession → u/Existing-Base-417]

They want full control of how its spent and honestly just dont want to pay.

Also this piece of shit moved right across the border to another state - so basically he wants to enjoy everything in California but not pay for it.

[u/buyongmafanle → u/Waiting4Reccession]

"I want to live in California because it's a great place, but not pay the taxes that make it a great place. I want my company to be in California because it has access to a thriving global economy, but not pay the taxes or wages required to support that environment. I want access to all the culture and diversity that California has to offer, but offer no support for those making California an exciting and interesting place."

So fucking tired of these Libertarians that always take and never give.

[u/Laiko_Kairen → u/Existing-Base-417]

You know how some people are so fucking out of touch that they consider taxation to be a form of slavery? Those people who think being forced to pay for roads and schools is akin to being sold across the Atlantic in chains?

The principle they're standing up against is the idea that anyone can tell them what to do

[u/snuff3r → u/Existing-Base-417]

One of the greatest American scams - allowing billionaires to dissociate how much of that fortune they made off the backs of others, and those with broken backs having any form of agency drained away in the process.

Screw the rich and power to the people, always.

[u/FelesNoctis → u/Existing-Base-417]

I've heard it described as their mindset placing them so far above the "commoners" that they believe paying taxes as we do lowers their status. They believe they're above such things as our superiors. We're effectively livestock to them.

Don't try to remind them that everyone paid tribute and taxes to the King though, including lords. Somehow they see themselves all as the king.

[u/LaksaLettuce → u/FelesNoctis]

Such arrogance. They are still part of society that allowed them to get so rich, whether they like it or not. I hope he loses. 

[u/dldaniel123 → u/LaksaLettuce]

A big part of the problem is that they are not really a part of this society at all. They spend their time in gated mansions, private jets, private islands, with armed guards and whatever else. If they had to be even a bit more aligned with regular society, I'm sure some empathy paths would slowly wake up in their brains at least a little bit. Problem is they live a completely detached life and never have to interact with normal people in normal places.

[u/grchelp2018 → u/Existing-Base-417]

It comes from a mindset of control. Taxes are taken not voluntarily given. And this feeling is double reinforced if you think taxes are being wasted. If you want to help the poor or do something charitable, you'd have much better luck asking for a donation from them than trying to take it from them via taxes.

[u/Distinct-Pain4972 → u/williamgman]

Then they call themselves patriots and pay for red votes.  That is what we're dealing with right now.

[u/Hexamancer → u/williamgman]

It's because they're afraid, they're afraid each time it happens and they don't all leave the state and jobs don't all disappear and actually things get a little better that people will say "well more of that please", that their propaganda will convince fewer and fewer people.

So they'll spend far more fighting a tax proposal than that specific tax proposal will cost them, because they're terrified it won't end there as soon as everyone realizes it's incredibly beneficial.

[u/reneemergens → u/williamgman]

well you know what warren buffet says, “i didn’t make my money by giving it away”

same reason he won’t tip his dinner service. if you’re gonna act like that at least support a little minimum wage legislation here or there.

[u/JayBeeGooner]

And he’ll still be filthy rich and have more money than he could ever spend. i hate these greedy psychopaths.

[u/peepdabidness → u/JayBeeGooner]

In clash royale, you can’t have more than $5,000,000 and causes no issues because nothing costs enough that couldn’t be recuperated quickly. I’m not saying we should do this, but we should do something. It’s time for a new type of economy.

[u/peazley → u/peepdabidness]

$18 million, gives you $1,000 per day for 50 years. Without earning anything off your investment. That’s a nice hotel and fancy dinner every night for the rest of your life.

[u/hammertime2009 → u/peazley]

I’m ok with this idea. Hell even 100 million… let them have it. Fuck it 1 billion is the cutoff. Be rich as fuck. Nobody ever ever ever needs 10 billion or 1 trillion. It’s just insane.

[u/EchoingAngel → u/hammertime2009]

The real problem is people getting rich enough to start shaping the system. That's how it becomes a runaway issue

[u/Waiting4Reccession → u/EchoingAngel]

The underlying problem is actual peoples own aversion to violence.

Even though they have all of history to look back on and see what has always been the only solution that actual ever worked.

[u/MyUsernamePls → u/Waiting4Reccession]

This is why the media jumped on the dude that shot the big pharma CEO and they made an example out of him. They don't want common people shooting down the ultra rich.

[u/caifaisai → u/MyUsernamePls]

Technically it was a health insurance CEO (which I personally find even worse, at least pharma ostensibly provides a necessary service of developing and making medicine, can't say the same thing for the United healthcare). But the point remains the same.

[u/Kiramic → u/Waiting4Reccession]

I keep thinking this is the reason that "violence is not the answer" is a message that is repeatedly banged into your head from childhood. Clever bit of brainwashing

[u/HeadfulOfSugar → u/Kiramic]

& why we learn so much about MLK jr. (“So much” as if he & his beliefs aren’t insanely whitewashed), & virtually nothing at all about Malcom X & the Black Panthers. I’d genuinely never heard of The Black Panthers really until the literal marvel character, my school never said their name K-12, if Malcolm’s name ever came up for any reason all we needed to know was that he was the bad violent terrorist version of MLK. They want you to believe that everything that was ever accomplished here was accomplished kindly, women went out with picket signs so we gave them the right to vote, MLK organized big peaceful crowds & asked nicely so we decided “hey yknow what, maybe people with dark skin are actually real human beings…” lol

[u/sheep_duck → u/HeadfulOfSugar]

For me I definitely grew up learning about the black panthers with a tinge of negativity attached to it (they were civil rights activists but they were scary and they had guns, maybe they would’ve been more effective if they didn’t be so aggressive) but only in the last 5-10 years with marvel and then seeing the new wave of them pop up protecting their community and providing resources to people did I realize exactly the kind of organization they are and what their beliefs represent.

Our education has definitely been brainwashing us from a young age

[u/HeadfulOfSugar → u/sheep_duck]

Yeah when I learned about how they were running free breakfast programs across the nations largest cities, that fed 20,000+ kids daily because the powers that be wouldn’t, which Hoover described as the “greatest threat to the internal security of the country" because they were feeding both poor black AND white children, it suddenly all clicked into place lmao

[u/These-Prune-1529 → u/Waiting4Reccession]

I agree. It's why they are all busy building bunkers.

[u/Pseudonymico → u/These-Prune-1529]

Bunkers with blockable air vents and guards who may or may not sympathise with their employers when the shit hits the fan.

[u/UnknownLesson → u/Pseudonymico]

They have definitely thought of that

Nothing is perfect, but it will be anything but easy

And guards will be robots in a couple of years

[u/SoochSooch → u/UnknownLesson]

Sometime after the collapse, there will be massive bunkers scattered around the world, full of treasure, guarded by robots that attack anything that comes near.

This would make a great Zelda type game.

[u/TopTittyBardown → u/These-Prune-1529]

It’s crazy that all they had to do was be a little less greedy and they could’ve not fucked the environment and the economy to the point that they feel like they’re going to have to retreat to live underground at some point. They’d rather live in holes in the dirt than put a little bit of effort into keeping this beautiful planet habitable for them to enjoy and a happy enough place for all that they don’t have to worry about revolt. They could still be rich beyond their wildest dreams and have everything they ever want without having to worry about being lynched by the poors if they just paid their fair share

[u/OutrageousThought646 → u/Waiting4Reccession]

France is calling

[u/Beibzi → u/Waiting4Reccession]

Be careful, reddit mods LOVE to ban people for daring to say anything remotely violent being done to their oligarchs because laws fail to rein them in.

[u/__ZOMBOY__ → u/Beibzi]

Ooo, I’ll risk it:

Violence is the ONLY answer when our overlords get out of control. Exhibit A: the creation of the USA

EDIT: four days after commenting and no ban yet!

[u/Jared2345 → u/Beibzi]

I’ve been put on timeouts for a guillotine gif.

[u/SpitefulRedditScum → u/Waiting4Reccession]

Violence is the ONLY answer to this problem and We need to deal with this problem with extreme prejudice.

except we can’t acknowledge that without coping a ban. This comment will likely result in a ban

[u/Caleb_Reynolds → u/EchoingAngel]

The real problem is the workers aren't entitled to the value of their labor. This is all an inevitability of a system where capital is entitled to the profit of labor.

[u/Conformatrix → u/EchoingAngel]

Which is why a 7 or maaaybe low 8 digit limit makes sense. At that point you have to actually weigh your grandiose nation/world-shaping ideals against your creature comforts.

Although reps are notoriously cheaper to buy than people imagine, so maybe lower would be better.

[u/MoodyBernoulli → u/EchoingAngel]

Lobbying should even be a thing. It’s daylight corruption.

It should be called ‘bribing’

[u/moddingminecrafter → u/EchoingAngel]

Exactly this. $100 million is too much. $18 million is better - I think still too high but I’d take it in a compromise. All money made over the limit goes to local-federal taxes.

Also the loopholes for reinvestment to hide profits need to be closed, along with corporate bankruptcy rules as it’s used for money laundering schemes. Also revoke Citizens United and make it illegal for a representative to accept any individual or corporate money for political races - this can now be paid fairly by taxes with much of the bloat removed (for example, no more $20k lobster dinners). Bring back fair news, with a requirement to cover some percentage of global news.

[u/htx1114 → u/hammertime2009]

But won't anyone think of the custom yacht makers? How are people going to afford a $50 billion yacht - fucking timeshares?

[u/Dear_Chasey_La1n → u/htx1114]

The irony would be, instead of building a 50 billion yacht he gets to build 30 2.5 billion USD yachts. The problem with wealth is they aren't spending it. When people have less wealth, they are more likely to spend more. 100 1 billion billionaires will spend together more into the society than 1 100 billion billionaire.

Which is why welfare to the poor is fantastic, they have no ability to save they are cash strapped. Give them 100-200-500 USD monthly and they will spend it on daily needs. Give a billionaire 1 million he will add it to the pile of money to jack off to.

[u/Content-Nectarine875 → u/Dear_Chasey_La1n]

Yeah when I learnt that giving money to the poor actually makes a profit for society. Took a while for me to get my head around it.

[u/TrulyOutrageous42 → u/Content-Nectarine875]

Money existing but not moving hurts an economy.

[u/Ok_Umpire8214 → u/Content-Nectarine875]

Our economy works bc we are poor and need to spend money to survive. Rich people hoarding money only hurts the majority. It’s like these people skipped economics

[u/Impeesa_ → u/Content-Nectarine875]

Allegedly business-minded people suddenly stop understanding "you have to spend money to make money" as soon as it looks like investing in people and infrastructure.

[u/ComradeJohnS → u/htx1114]

they can chip in together and share one really really nice one.

[u/OstrichGrouchy7749 → u/peazley]

And 5% back on 20 mil. Gives you another mil every year. 

That’s close to 3g a day. 

The tax loopholes need to be closed. And if your net worth it greater than 10 mil, you need to pay 30% tax on any value generated for the year. If there are loses you get a tax credit of whatever.  Then at death half your assets get taxed at 50% 

[u/Callabrantus → u/[deleted]]

At that level, they're called wives.

[u/needlestack → u/peepdabidness]

MacKenzie Scott started with something like $36B. Over the past seven years or so she's donated $26B. She still has $33B.

[u/Leather_Feeling_6642 → u/peepdabidness]

I really think it might help if we take a page from gaming.

Let's call it prestige. You get to a billion (yes, including unrealized gains), and everything else you earn, 75% of it goes to the government that uses it to fund schools and infrastructure, or something like that.

And the person legally gets to put a star at the end of their name. For every billion earned to the prestige fund after that, you get another star.

So Sergey Brin ⭐⭐⭐, remember when you said "Do no evil" on Google's home page? Let's make it happen.

[u/skillywilly56 → u/peepdabidness]

When someone reaches a billion dollars they cash out of society, they can never own or run a business again, they can never donate to anything but a charity and no tax refund either, they can never hold a press conference or write a book or participate in society in anyway way shape or form ever again.

They take their billion and leave, travel the world, do some kind of philanthropy but they can never use their capital in anyway to sway society or have an opinion or influence a politician.

A billion dollars is generational wealth and their family is set for hundreds of years on the interest alone, having won the lottery of life the casino kicks them out for good.

[u/morpheousmorty → u/skillywilly56]

The problem is a billion dollars buys millions of rules bent.

Just tax all income above 50 million a year at like 90%. You can become a billionaire in your lifetime, heck if you include unrealized gains you can be as rich as you want, but if you realize 51 million, you'll end up with that last million highly taxed.

This applies to inheritance, all income, so fuck becoming a billionaire through inheritance.

Some will say you can just keep your assets unrealized forever. Okay. That's fine. You won't be able to buy a US election like that.

[u/CombatGoose → u/JayBeeGooner]

You could spend $80,000 a day for 30 years and still have money left over if you had only a billion dollars.

[u/Agitated_Reveal_6211 → u/CombatGoose]

One million seconds is about 11.5 days, a billion seconds is roughly 31.7 years, and a trillion seconds spans about 31,700 years

People just can't seem to visualize how large these numbers actually are.

[u/Tasgall → u/Agitated_Reveal_6211]

The way I always put it is that the difference between a million and a billion is a billion.

What's the difference between 11.5 days and 31.7 years? About 31.7 years.

[u/Crim91 → u/JayBeeGooner]

The existence of these psychopaths is a threat to our lives.

[u/TrulyOutrageous42 → u/Crim91]

At this point not just our lives in the general sense of a few people are at risk, but legitimately the survival of our species and while unlikely possibly life. We have no framework to guess if the math behind life existing is reasonable, so we MAY be the only life in the universe, and we're... doing what now?

[u/suzisatsuma → u/JayBeeGooner]

Isn't the article missing he moved himself and businesses out of Cali before the deadline?

[u/sakredfire → u/JayBeeGooner]

I mean 25 years ago he was just a dude in a garage. I wish people would stop treating billionaires as if they’re a magical form of demi human. Big tech were startups less than a generation ago, compared to other industries where the biggest players have been around for more than a century.

[u/Vidco91 → u/sakredfire]

In the mid 2010's I saw him wandering by himself in a tech conference checking out booths for cool tech in a Tee and shorts. We've come a long way what happened to these personable humans.

[u/Zizhou → u/Vidco91]

We've come a long way what happened to these personable humans.

Prolonged exposure to lots of money showed them that they could stop pretending to be personable humans.

[u/FlipZip69 → u/JayBeeGooner]

This is almost certainly going to fail for the state. For one, they are trying to tax assets outside of the state of California. Within California it may be viable. But to tax assets you own in another state our country is difficult without proper apportionment. (That is money those countries have more right to).

The second problem is the retroactivity problem. Courts will generally allow states to adjust taxes reaching back the current year, it would be much hard to get the courts to approve a tax that goes back multiple years. Particularly on a new tax. I suspect there will be massive wealth fleeing California that will vastly outweigh any one time revenue that this will generate.

I am not saying this to negate wealth inequality. But just to be realistic. This suggestion will do more harm then good I suspect. Even if it never passes there will be wealth fleeing.

[u/IpromiseTobeAgoodBoy → u/JayBeeGooner]

Wait till you find out about the people that spend his money and your money. Let’s just say roads don’t cost that much and most of it goes into some administrators pocket or bs program

[u/yomamaisasnowblower]

How is that even a thing? Stop and think about that. Paying lobbyists, buying ads to sway public opinion, “donating” to corrupt politicians. Is this democracy? Is this how government serves the people or just the wealthy?

[u/SuggestionPrize304 → u/yomamaisasnowblower]

It's basically been an oligarchy for a while now. We just don't call it that because we're "different".

Seems like every road ends at the same place

[u/PretzelsRule23]

"It's a big club and you're not in it." George Carlin

I would love to watch a Carlin routine today.

I think a good voting strategy is to vote against whatever the billionaires are supporting.

[u/sselkiess → u/PretzelsRule23]

I feel like it’s a small club. There’s plenty of well off people, rich people, and very rich people.

But there’s few people that have the money to affect policy. Those are the people that we should be wary of. No one individual should have the ability to make that kind of impact. And no one in that position has ever been altruistic enough to justify the damage they have done to get there.

[u/Tirras → u/sselkiess]

Once you're bringing your little gang of oligarchs on trips to foreign leaders, it's pretty clear they aren't normal citizens anymore simply due to the wealth they've accumulated.

[u/livestrong2109 → u/PretzelsRule23]

He would be way to jaded by now. His whole thing was that he'd jump on stage drop truth bombs at a certain cadence and you would laugh. I've come to realize he wasn't really telling jokes.

[u/BackgroundMeeting857 → u/PretzelsRule23]

I watch some of his old stuff today and man it feels like he just time traveled for his routines...

[u/Successful-Ad-9634]

According to Google (ironically} he has a net worth between $263B and $273B. $13B is less than 5%. He won't miss it, so fuck him.

[u/TechRepSir → u/Successful-Ad-9634]

It's a 5% wealth tax proposal, so your math tracks.

[u/Obvious_Chapter2082 → u/TechRepSir]

Technically, it can go a lot higher than 5%. For Brin, it would be around 20%

[u/Different_Sweet_5008 → u/Obvious_Chapter2082]

Not high enough

[u/KickBalls80 → u/Obvious_Chapter2082]

And?

[u/Loud-Reaction2460 → u/KickBalls80]

Well we don’t want that. What if in 2 years we are billionaires and we have to pay 20% :/

[u/Bn_scarpia → u/Loud-Reaction2460]

Oh no! We would only have $800 million?? How do you expect me to live on such meager means? (Wipes sweat with $100 bills)

[u/-Gman_ → u/Successful-Ad-9634]

“Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich”

[u/themiDdlest → u/Successful-Ad-9634]

He moved to Nevada, so he's just doing this because he can.

[u/AHistoricalFigure → u/Successful-Ad-9634]

Also, isnt this a one-time wealth tax? It's not like he'd owe this every year.

[u/richardelmore → u/AHistoricalFigure]

The tax codes need to be fixed so high wealth individuals pay more but a one time wealth tax seems like a bad way to do it. If there is a huge influx of cash then we will see the governmental equivalent of life style creep and in a couple years they will need money again.

If there is going to be a wealth tax it seems like it should be at a lower rate but ongoing so it becomes dependable income rather than a windfall.

My hunch is that, since the tax is retroactive to the start of the year, the idea it to get the revenue in one shot before anyone can relocate but assert that there is no ongoing reason for billionaires to leave the state. Wait a few years, and repeat.

[u/-Saucegurlllll → u/richardelmore]

If there is a huge influx of cash then we will see the governmental equivalent of life style creep and in a couple years they will need money again.

The tax is literally to backfill federal healthcare cuts. So it basically already has an aportioned use.

Plus, California has a spending limit (which shouldn't exist, but whatever, I wasn't alive in 1979 when conservative hack Paul Gann convinced everyone to kneecap state taxes), so there's not that much of a risk of the state creeping into "lavish" spending even with a one-time revenue source outside of that limit.

[u/ayriuss → u/Successful-Ad-9634]

5% of my wealth is like 1500 bucks and I just dropped that on a GPU, so he'll manage.

[u/Friendly_Engineer_]

YES on 40, NO on 41 and 42

Easy as that, fuck these assholes

edit: and YES on 3 (extend current top earner tax)

Quick endorsement list from couragecalifornia.org :

YES on 1, 2, 3, 4, and 40

NO on propositions 39, 43, 44, and 45

[u/Overall_Koala_8710 → u/Friendly_Engineer_]

41 and 42 were definitely forced onto the ballot by these people as seemingly "common sense" proposals to try to kill 40 judicially.

And I'm afraid my state is going to fall for it.

[u/wpnw → u/Overall_Koala_8710]

Exact same thing they're trying to do in Washington to kill the Millionaire Income Tax, except they're piggybacking on anti-trans bullshit instead.

[u/Iohet → u/Overall_Koala_8710]

It's how we undermined the gig worker protection law, too. Direct democracy doesn't always get a good result because a mob is easy to manipulate

[u/Brain_Dead_Goats → u/Friendly_Engineer_]

Yeah, but people are going to vote yes on 42 because they're going to buy the fearmongering about "they want to take your 401ks!"

[u/Friendly_Engineer_ → u/Brain_Dead_Goats]

Not if we tell everyone we know and spread the word

[u/atowned → u/Friendly_Engineer_]

Don't forget Yes on 3, extend the already existing tax on higher income earners (starting from 360k+ single, 721k+ joint).

edit: this will go to schools.

[u/SSSJDanny → u/Friendly_Engineer_]

I'm trying to find signs I can put on my lawn, but the yes on 40 website doesn't offer any.

I might have to make my own. Something like Yes on 40 Fuck those Billionaires. No on 41 & 42 it's a fake Billionaire attempt to counteract Prop 40 if it passes

[u/Night247 → u/Friendly_Engineer_]

what's crazy is if you say this in /r/California

you get a lot of bots telling you that you should vote no instead because it's actually "bad and will long term hurt"

[u/Short-MooseEh → u/Night247]

I mean, Reddit corporate offices are in California and I bet spez and others live in the state

[u/Imhereforthechips]

Every boomer reminisces of the 1950s and 1960s.

From 1950 through 1963, the top federal income tax rate ranged between 91% and 92%.

Executives should be paid a salary like the rest of us instead of shares that they can take loans out against and never have to pay off.

[u/tidal_flux → u/Imhereforthechips]

Isn’t that supposed to be when America was “great?“

[u/Smooth_Rocket_ → u/tidal_flux]

For a certain portion of people it was pretty great. Its the only time in history 1 person could work a job and go from lower to middle class for a whole family.

[u/Mathfanforpresident → u/tidal_flux]

Surely just a coincidence. Right?

L.O.L

[u/Forkrul → u/Imhereforthechips]

Do you know how many people actually paid that highest marginal rate? Pretty much zero. Once their salary got to those high numbers they just started getting paid in other things instead, like stock. That's when stock options became common because you don't pay income tax on that. Or the classic of Hollywood, collapsible corporations that got paid instead of you. The corporation paid a much lower corporate tax rate, then you liquidated the corporation and paid capital gains tax instead of income tax. Or just stuff like company cars, jets, apartments, country club memberships, etc.

[u/jccaclimber → u/Forkrul]

This isn’t quite how that works. If you’re given options you really only profit off of the growth, and get zero for the value they are at when you’re given them. As a result public companies more or less give out RSUs, and the value of the stock hits your W2 the same as straight income when it becomes yours.

Now, if you want to talk about the BS of basis price resetting at inheritance and taking loans against holdings that don’t pay off until then, you have a point.

[u/Forkrul → u/jccaclimber]

This isn’t quite how that works

True, today it does work a bit different. But back when the top marginal tax rates were 90%+, stock options got taxed nothing if they were granted at at least 95% of the fair market value. And then you only paid a 25% capital gains tax on the gain when sold. Given that you held them for a certain period.

And yes, step up in basis on inheritance is bullshit.

[u/rankinfile → u/Imhereforthechips]

Reminisces what? Grammar school? Youngest boomer didn't graduate high school until ~1964 when the last was being born.

[u/YourBlanket → u/Imhereforthechips]

Taxes were completely differently back then. No one paid 91%, the top 1% paid an average effective rate of just shy of 17% during the 50s. The average of the top 0.001 percent paid 55.3 and that's federal, state, and local taxes included. The 91% was also marginal and of course the people who qualified just did legal tax avoidance loopholes or reduced their reporting. They do pay less now but a ten percent difference on average.

[u/_mully_ → u/YourBlanket]

As an acct, im interested on the history of the average effective rate, got any things to look up? I typically took the historical tax brackets at face value, tbh.

Thanks.

[u/GamerTex → u/_mully_]

Look up Rockefeller. He was the reason they created,  and repealed,  the 91% bracket

[u/qgmonkey]

"Don't be evil"

[u/hamfinity → u/qgmonkey]

Don't. Be evil.

[u/soularbabies → u/[deleted]]

Someone downvoted you for this by the way, which is weird

[u/NwordSzrHands → u/soularbabies]

Pedophile defenders are super fkn weird

[u/PyroIsSpai]

Tell me how this isn’t kings of old shit.

We don’t have to ALLOW them.

We outnumber them MILLIONS to ONE.

[u/ltsouthernbelle]

Serious question: what does one individual who already has vast amounts of money, homes, cars, all the toys and luxuries they desire do with $13b?

[u/Kekafuch → u/ltsouthernbelle]

They link up with other billionaires and decide how they are going to fuck shit up.

[u/BogiDope → u/ltsouthernbelle]

Dragon sickness

[u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist → u/ltsouthernbelle]

It’s about power. You might not be able to buy more consumer goods but having $60 billion gives you more power than having $3 billion.

[u/AppearanceDizzy7006 → u/ltsouthernbelle]

Its basically a pissing contest when it gets to this sort of wealth

[u/UnidentifiedTomato → u/ltsouthernbelle]

Serious answer: it stays in his company

[u/constablepancakes → u/ltsouthernbelle]

Keep it from you. Rich is not about gaining address. It’s about denying access

[u/ShinyElisabeth77 → u/ltsouthernbelle]

You are enormously rich in comparison to Bangladesh people. Let’s assume you need to pay a tax of 5% of you wealth (eg 5% of your house cost + 5% from your earnings this year + 5% of your car cost +5% of potential inheritance - and all is measured by some nominated admins). And then money will be given to Bangladesh civil servants.

So, will you try to avoid that to happen or you simply give the money? 

Please not - you are extremely rich in compare to Bangladeshi. 

[u/Aggravating-Method24 → u/ShinyElisabeth77]

Extremely rich means nothing. You need to represent in terms of accessible real wealth. So while I am extremely rich compared to a bangledeshi with this loss in wealth I would lose the ability to holiday, or eat quality food, perhaps be forced to downsize my home. 

Which of these would a billionaire be risking? None... Obviously 

[u/Wobbly_Princess → u/ltsouthernbelle]

Own it. That's... literally it. After hoarding absurd amounts of material goods, they simply sit on it.

It's a status thing, it's a power thing.

These people are operating on a psychological wavelength that we as normal people can't conceive of, because their brains work differently.

A small percent of the population, whether they are good or bad people, simply don't have a rich well of empathy that connects them to other people, so they simply interface with reality through the lens of power and grabbling.

Some of these people who lack empathy are still able to conduct themselves well and do the right thing because they're pro-social and don't desire hurting people, but there are others who truly don't care about doing damage, as long as they can be in power. They're not turned off by the mess of it, as long as there are mechanisms in place that keep them at a safe distance from the devastation they're causing.

Unfortunately because the system has slowly grown into a machine that props up and empowers people who hoard vast amounts of wealth, we're now in a mess.

It's not unsolvable, but holy shit, this has formed into something way larger and more menacing than it ever should have, and to be honest, this is all of our faults. It's not just the rich people with different brains, it's also a sleepy population who in many ways allowed for the gradual encroachment of things that should have been tossed out decades ago.

Lastly I wanna say, I don't even know if he's entirely wrong in his pursuit, because if you do heavily tax the rich, they'll probably just fuck off elsewhere, and that also causes economic damage.

[u/UffTaTa123 → u/Wobbly_Princess]

well, we naerly, reallly nearly got a worldwide minimum company tax as a first step to keep those companies accountable and to prevent them from just fleeing to the next tax heaven.

But well, then the american people in their endless wisdom decided to put a bancrupter and mental ill person in charge who wanted to steal and hord as much money as possible.

[u/welpWW3isgonnasuck → u/Wobbly_Princess]

Its not even material. The vast majority of the money isnt liquid. Its watching numbers go up on a screen. 

[u/PoL0 → u/Wobbly_Princess]

it's pretty easily solvable. just tax big fortunes. stop with the tax incentives for big corporations and rich people.

the usual counterargument is that fortunes leave when states do that. so what? they aren't paying their taxes anyway so they can fuck off.

billionaires should be the most grateful for public services and infrastructure. it's what holds their businesses and workers.

[u/ZealousidealCrow8492 → u/PoL0]

These people easily forget that UNIONS were / are the compromise replacement for guillotines.

[u/accomplished_bee5542 → u/Wobbly_Princess]

They won't go anywhere. No country actually does well when they tax everyone but the rich, no one has real reason to do it. So if countries start working in their best interest, not the interest of the very few who only extract wealth, these people will have no place to go. And if they do make one up, you can always fuck up their ways of extracting wealth in your country.

There are ways, a good amount of poor people adoring these empathy challenged clowns need to stop protecting their interests hoping they'll share wealth and power. It's ridiculous. The word "simping" applies to no one better than it does to the regular people running around protecting, admiring and offering preferential treatment to someone who has a lot of money and therefore " status".

[u/-thecheesus- → u/ltsouthernbelle]

It's not about using the money. Acquiring the money is their passion/interest/hobby/sickness

[u/Positive_Vibes_4228]

Rich don't pay tax, poor can't pay tax. Who is left?

[u/Logical_Mix_4627 → u/Positive_Vibes_4228]

As it’s always been - the burden falls on the upper middle class who pay an overweight portion of the taxes. The wealthy can escape them, but high earning W2 employees can’t.

[u/Antifa-AF]

Tax billionaires out of existence! They are a blight on humanity!

[u/grooverocker → u/Antifa-AF]

Time and time again billionaires show us that they're not even human anymore. Their prerogatives are so utterly divergent from humanity and simultaneously deleterious to our common good. It's like they're a different species.

[u/Electrical-Tie-5158]

Every citizen should be limited to $5k in annual political donations. It’s ridiculous that billionaires can spend a medium-size fortune to campaign against policies that would cost them a big fortune. In Texas, Ken Paxton is getting over $100m just from Musk. There is zero incentive to fundraise from regular people.

[u/Historical-Jump]

this guy has almost 300 billion freaking dollars. Genuine question what is the end goal here? he and his next 50 generation of family can live a life if absolute luxury that will make a king jealous. What are “they” preparing for to shamelessly hoard such wealth?.

[u/Citadel_Employee → u/Historical-Jump]

It’s not about the money it’s about having to sell shares aka ownership. Him and Larry Page have 52% voting rights. This would make him dip under, and no longer have majority say at Google.

Not saying it’s right, or he shouldn’t pay it. Just why he opposes it.

[u/Kageru → u/Historical-Jump]

At that point I am convinced it is a dick measuring contest. The utility value of a dollar is marginal, but acts as a scoreboard in the circle of obscenely wealthy people he moves in.

[u/Ashamed_Athlete_9733 → u/Kageru]

100% it is a dick measuring contest. Elon was worth over 1.45 trillion at one point

[u/CHRISTOFIERC3 → u/Historical-Jump]

It’s unrealized money though. The sale of the stock to pay for the tax is also a taxable event and at that large of an amount it could disrupt the stock price which would affect anyone and everyone who has investments in the company. It’s not like he has 300bb just sitting in a savings account.

[u/WhereMyWeirdosAt]

Remember when Bill Gates couldn't go out in public, without risking being whipcream pied in the face? Can we make all billionaires share this same worry?

[u/uninspired-86 → u/WhereMyWeirdosAt]

They don’t mix with the public. They are a distinct species of human now.

[u/notacatbutt → u/WhereMyWeirdosAt]

Billionaires are their own country now. They don't identify as American or British or swedish, they're just "Billionaire".  So absolutely no patriotism or care about Society in general. They don't have to care about anything but themselves and making more billions.

[u/Cverellen]

If these a-holes spent the money they did to defeat these bills on I don’t know, helping people and their workers, then this wouldn’t happen…

[u/Money_Hovercraft1533]

Oh no! Then he would only have 260 billion.

[u/PoL0]

if he loses

if his bribes fail

FTFY

that's literally 13 billions of public money he's not paying. 13 billions can do a lot in public services.

and for those defending the billionaire: the amount of richness you have to own to be elegible to pay 13b $ in taxes is insane. he'd still be a billionaire.

[u/Major_Priority1041]

Just another loophole that needs to be closed. Buying political influence to avoid fair taxation.
Close the loopholes. Problem solved.

[u/NurseJackass]

Being rich enough to spend $102million to subvert the law to your will is exactly why he should pay $13billion in tax instead!

[u/GetThatAwayFromMe]

He has a net worth of about $260 billion. He wouldn’t even notice a difference in his life, not one, if he paid the $12 billion. There are between 900 and 1300 billionaires in the U.S.(depending on the list). 85 to 90 percent of those billionaires are worth less than $10 billion. He could give $12 billion dollars each to 20 people, putting them in the top 10 percent of billionaires, and still have $40 billion making him STILL one of the 25 richest people in the country.

[u/pirelliskrrting → u/GetThatAwayFromMe]

That there is not billionaire thinking

[u/LindeeHilltop]

13 billion for the state and fellow citizens sounds good to me.

[u/Tyraec]

Looks like he needs to be scared enough of the tax to spend 12.9 billion more.

[u/Alarming-City-7260]

Fun fact! He'll still be worth $250 billion

[u/DKDamian]

Absolute scum. I have no kind words for these parasitic leeches

[u/okfornothing]

MF'ers want to keep this country in debt! These are wealth hoarders! Tax them out of existence!!!

[u/nikzyk → u/okfornothing]

They wanna split the country up into their own feudal lands if they had their way.

[u/spuany]

The fact a person can just casually spend 100mil on such a topic just proves even more why the tax is needed. Nobody should be able to just buy themselves a more favourable political situation.

[u/OK_x86 → u/spuany]

Tax but also campaign financing limits.

People shouldn't have so much money they can just buy the political process but there also shouldn't be a mechanism through which they can inject infinite amounts of money into the system.

[u/FrontBottomFace → u/spuany]

Exactly! The issue isn't that he wants to pay more tax than he does (kind of understandable in a way if you ignore the inequality between his tax and mine) but that he can buy his opinion into politics. Disgusting.

[u/OutrageousCrab9224]

In other words he will spend up to 13 billion dollars minus one penny to oppose it

[u/Fire-Jon-Sumrall]

Not a Cali resident so I may be out of the loop, but I thought Newsom veto'd this?

[u/srbeau → u/Fire-Jon-Sumrall]

No, this is a one time wealth tax that is on the ballot in November

[u/HaiKarate]

“First, do no evil.”

[u/Character_Glove_7977]

What is the end goal with these guys? You already have all the money. Like, fuck man.

[u/splam]

At the end of any political ad, if you see Building a Better California, it’s this fucker. Just vote the opposite.

[u/FreshLiterature]

And they're out there straight up lying about what the tax does

[u/hi_im_snowman]

You have to be a special kind of asshole to avoid paying your fair share ESPECIALLY when the business climate in place allowed you to become so fucking rich that you need teams of people to assess your net worth and manage your assets.

Tax these greedy shit-stains enough to force them to sell assets hand over fist.

[u/invyros]

A working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in May noted billionaires residing in the state paid $4.1 billion in income tax last year, about 0.2% of their collective $2 trillion net worth, meaning that even if every billionaire were to leave the state, it would take about 25 years for lost income tax revenue to cancel out the $100 billion sum California is projected to get from the tax.

Opponents to this one-time tax argue that it'll make billionaires leave the state, making California lose out on any recurring taxes they may pay in the future.

These numbers destroy that argument immediately.

[u/Forkrul → u/invyros]

There's more than income tax the state loses by these people moving. Their day-to-day spend goes elsewhere so they lose out on sales tax, a lot of their staff will move with them losing out on income and sales tax from those people and their spending. They'll probably move any corporate headquarters as well, losing the corporate taxes and all the income tax from those jobs, etc. Just looking at income tax is an incredible simplistic and naive comparison.

[u/troelsbjerre]

Most of his wealth is in GOOG shares. This would force him to sell 5% of his shares. Since he and Larry Page combined only have a slight majority of voting power, this selloff would not just be money lost, but losing majority voting power of the company.

[u/7LeagueBoots]

His net worth is around $260 billion. WTF is he going to do with $260 billion that he can't do with $247 billion?

He's just a greedy shit like the rest of them.

[u/Danominator]

What could possibly make a nonbillionaire not support this

[u/Beneficial-Act-9933 → u/Danominator]

The fact that it's one time thing and not actually changing anything. Yeah it's be nice to get that cash, but are you going to have to make a new prop every single time that needs to be voted on? It's a short term solution to long term problems and doesn't address the loop holes they use to stay flush with cash.

[u/nj_crc → u/Danominator]

The unhinged belief that they themselves will one day be a billionaire.

[u/Everyone2026 → u/nj_crc]

They also believed the billionair earned it through hard work.

Most exploited their workers or had no ethics.

[u/tacosguestbong]

I'm seeing too many of these fear-mongering commercials. I really hope my fellow Californians don't fall for the bullshit, but i'm afraid no research will be done. Vote yes on 40!!

[u/itz_my_brain]

"Brin, with a net worth of nearly $260 billion, could owe about $13 billion as a result of the tax."

[u/B-Glasses]

The problem is we have this one time tax bill that has a small majority support and then 2 other bills that sound similar but if either of those get a yes vote it basically negates the billionaire tax. I have low hope the tax actually happens. These people are scum and should be helping society not trying to claw every cent they can like munchkin dragons

[u/Hurtkopain]

"you spent 100 mill man wow you must've helped so many causes in need!" ......"nah, just words on a truckload of paper to try and keep all the money to myself"

[u/AdEven7883]

Poor baby. I am very concerned if he has to pay his fair share of taxes.

[u/TheG00dF1ght]

and he'll still have more money than he can spend in multiple lifetimes.

EAT THE RICH

[u/Marewn]

He’s got 28m left in his budget I bet

[u/Everybodysbastard]

I’d spend a dollar to avoid paying $130 too.

[u/valuemenu]

Always boggles my mind how cheap it is for these guys to persuade voters. The bill might pass, but Sergey’s math put the value of stopping it at a mere $100M against the $13,000M he could potentially have to contribute.

[u/themiDdlest]

Brin doesn't live in California anymore, he preemptively moved to Nevada.

[u/guineaprince]

Welp it's all down to whether his man on the inside Gavin vetoes it, the same way he just vetoed banning extraditing providers and recipients of abortion and gender care to red states for criminal prosecution, vetoed banning pervert glasses from recording people, vetoed banning ICE from working for state government, vetoed banning websites from selling your data, vetoed giving Native tribes more say in water rights... Though he seemed really keen on pushing the Paramount merger for Ellison.

What would billionaire oligarchs do without Gavin Newsom's protection?

[u/Nathan-Stubblefield]

They had a week or so to relocate to another state so they were no longer a California resident.

[u/IngwiePhoenix]

Wish more places mused the idea of introducing a billionaire tax. It would bring them all right out of the woodwork.

Pay up, bitch.

[u/Virtual_Instance_741]

I don't think companies should be allowed to donate money to influence politics. Alternatively, PACs shouldn't be allowed. Direct representation is useless when there are millions of dollars influencing.

[u/Informal_Weather1655]

Henry Ford's vision
• The 1 to 40 ratio: In the 1930s, the founder of the Ford Motor Company believed that a maximum gap of 1 to 40 between the lowest salary and the salary of the executive was a healthy and acceptable limit to preserve the cohesion of the company.