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/Alarming-City-7260]

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

[u/Truth_Walker → u/Alarming-City-7260]

“Worth” is such a funny word to use.

Most of these billionaires we think are rich just have a ton of stocks. If their stocks tank they wouldn’t have much left.

They take out loans using their stocks as collateral, that’s how they get cash.

[u/Alarming-City-7260 → u/Truth_Walker]

Yeah no shit, it's not exactly a secret that rich people leverage the value of their stocks to take out loans to avoid paying their fair share in taxes

Doesn't take away the fact that he would still be worth a quarter trillion, so it's completely accurate to say he would still be "worth" that much

"But if shit hit the fan he would be worth nothing," you can apply the same logic to literally anybody, if shit hit the fan everyone becomes broke, not just the rich

[u/Truth_Walker → u/Alarming-City-7260]

It literally does take away the fact.

If the shit hits the fan, my assets exist in reality, not on a spreadsheet. I’ll be fine, they won’t just magically disappear. 99% of my worth doesn’t depend on shareholders and arbitrates.

Their “worth” exists on a computer, it’s digital, not in the physical universe.

The fact that people put weight on people’s stock value and call that worth is a terrible measure. Someone is worth a trillion and then a week later he “loses” 100 billion? He didn’t lose anything, he didn’t gain anything. You can’t gain or lose wealth unless you sell, if you’re holding a stock it’s all hypothetical made up figures until you turn that into something that exists in reality.

[u/Alarming-City-7260 → u/Truth_Walker]

Okay I see, you're one of those people who thinks that believing a stock has no value makes them a financial hipster prophet

The reality is, if you go to a bank and tell them you have $80,000 worth of shares, do you think that would increase the likelihood of them approving you for a loan? Of course it would, because those shares have value, and the banks treat them as such

Believing that shares have no value because someday shit might hit the fan is like believing cash itself has no value because the world will end some day. Like, sure? But when (or if) that happens will likely be long from now, so it's a moot point