Lace up your Guccis
No, it’s not the Onion. Or Andy Bowowitz. But since the website was registered three days ago in Iceland; and since the site resides on a server in Toronto; and since the “Join Us” link does not lead to a signup page; and since real billionaires would spend far more on a slicker website to defend themselves against a 1% wealth tax; call it a snide joke. A joke about California’s proposed billionaire tax ballot initiative.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) supports it. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, “widely seen as a presidential hopeful,” does not. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has donated “$20 million to a new California political drive weeks after he took steps to leave the state to avoid a possible billionaire tax.”
March for Billionaires argues:
The Billionaire Tax Act has already pushed the founders of Google to leave the state, taking their economic contributions with them. By taxing unrealized gains and voting shares, the act would make it difficult for founders to retain control of their startups.
Tax law expert, Brian Galle, is the “key architect” behind the measure. “I think capitalism is a great system that probably has, you know, enriched the lives of billions of people,” Galle told Fortune over Zoom recently, “But I’m not sure that our system is a functioning capitalist system right now.”
I approve that message.
Critics of the California proposal, including tech billionaire Palmer Luckey, have argued that a wealth tax would force them to liquidate businesses and fire workers to pay the bill. Galle dismissed this, saying, “The idea that they would have to sell a meaningful share of their assets to pay a 1% annual tax is just nonsense.” Galle also rejected the argument that wealth taxes are doomed to fail because they have been repealed in many countries such as France, pointing instead to successful, sustained models in Switzerland and Spain that closed loopholes for privately held businesses.
Billionaires are value-creators, March for Billionaires argues. Jeff Bezos built an online store, right? Larry Page & Sergey Brin made “the world’s information accessible to everyone, for free.” Taylor Swift fills stadiums worldwide. Hamdi Ulukaya popularized Chobani Greek yogurt!
Judge individuals, not classes
Of course, not all billionaires are good people. Some extract rather than create wealth. Some use their resources to cause serious political harm. These criticisms have merit, but they apply to individuals, not billionaires as a whole.
We believe most have made tremendous contributions to society, directly through their entrepreneurship and secondarily through taxes and philanthropy. That deserves our respect and admiration.
So lace up your Gucci sneakers and march with the 0.001% in defense of 1% of their wealth. Respect them. Admire them. Love them. Worship them.
(h/t DJ)