Wealth tax criticized by billionaires and Gavin Newsom would levy a one-time 5% tax on residents worth over $1bn

Wealth tax criticized by billionaires and Gavin Newsom would levy a one-time 5% tax on residents worth over $1bn

A popular proposal in California to impose a wealth tax on billionaires has gained enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in November, state officials announced on Wednesday.

The news is set to intensify an already heated debate around the tax, which has pitted tech moguls and the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, against the labor union backing the measure.

The California Billionaire Tax Act, colloquially known as the billionaire tax, would levy a one-time 5% tax on any California resident worth more than $1bn. The proposal is backed by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) as a means of funding California’s strained healthcare, food assistance and education programs.

  • Hello_there@fedia.io
    67·
    2 months ago

    I don’t care what the money goes to. As long as it takes one smidge of power away from them I am in favor.

    • takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      11·
      2 months ago

      What if all of that would go to the first Nazi trillionaire?

      But seriously, I agree with that sentiment.

    • homes@piefed.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      I did, but I got my posts and comments deleted for my effort

      An uprising requires more than simple discontent

  • oyo@lemmy.zip
    35·
    2 months ago

    But they’ll leave the state!

    Good, get these fucking leeches out of here.

  • nonentity@sh.itjust.works
    9·
    2 months ago

    Financial obesity is an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

    Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but trillionaires should be forced to transition into billionaires, and billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
      8·
      2 months ago

      Tangentially, I’d really love it if people stopped calling rich people “elites.” It reaffirms their belief that they’re better than the rest of us. Let’s stop stroking their egos and call them the leeches they are.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        Elites are not people, they’re groups. More specifically, they’re insular and well-connected groups with outsized power (relative to group population). They share a common interest and they cooperate to further that interest at the expense of the common good. Often these groups are made up of billionaires but they also include the politically connected as well as artists and entertainers/influencers.

        That was the older meaning of the word elite, anyway. More recently it’s come to denote individuals with exceptional skill. This version has been pervasive in the sports and gaming communities. I personally wouldn’t worry about the latter definition influencing the former. If you need to clarify, you can use terms like political or business elite.

        I think it’s really important for people to not give up on this term because it encompasses more than just wealth. Elites can form in any group, as a breakaway subgroup that works against the interests of the main group. Feminist Jo Freeman wrote a famous paper informed by her experiences witnessing the formation of elites within the feminist movement.

    • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      30·
      2 months ago

      Such proposals have raised predictable outrage from the rich, along with threats that they’ll move elsewhere where taxes are lower and dire predictions that their fellow plutocrats will refuse to move in.

      Yet there’s scant evidence for these consequences. In fact, when Massachusetts passed a “millionaires tax” in 2023, conservatives claimed the rich would flee. But two years later, they haven’t — and Massachusetts has collected $5.7 billion for infrastructure and public education. -Robert Reich

      I was listening to NPR a day or two ago. They were talking about a shortage of mansions in the Bay Area. While at the same time talking about a lack of affordable housing. We’re seeing the long term effects of not taxing wealth appropriately.

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      I heard It would be 25 years before any negative effects would be felt, assuming they leave the state.