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/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/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/IamB_Meister → u/UffTaTa123]

Show your work?

[u/theanxioussnail → u/IamB_Meister]

It was an initiative uner janet yellen. She worked under biden and was talking to the eu and china about it