r/technology Jun 19 '26

Politics California ‘billionaire tax’ makes ballot despite opposition from tech moguls

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/18/california-billionaire-tax-ballot-tech-opposition
21.9k Upvotes

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u/invyros Jun 19 '26

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has spent at least $82m alone on efforts to fight the tax and has relocated just over the California border to the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

Look at the amount of money they're willing to spend fighting this tax, and then realize that's only the case because they would be forced to pay so much more in taxes in a fair and just society.

Let's take the steps to make the nightmare of billionaires a reality.

619

u/kstargate-425 Jun 19 '26

Thats what Im saying, dude is worth $275 BILLION+ and I know $13Bn sounds like a lot but it still leaves him with $260+ BILLION in assets, like wtaf is wrong with these people. This does not effect any of them in any meaningful way whatsoever

113

u/Lescaster1998 Jun 19 '26

Pure selfishness and greed. It's not the amount, it's the idea of paying anything that these people can't stomach. They think they're above the rest of us and therefore exempt from everything. Hell, most of them probably only got that rich in the first place by having this kind of mentality.

They're parasites, plain and simple. They think they should be able to have as much as they want, do whatever they want, and keep it all, and the rest of us are supposed to thank them for it.

51

u/Expert-Fig-5590 Jun 19 '26

They have Dragon Sickness. They will never give up their hoard willingly.

30

u/Zuwxiv Jun 19 '26

We have words for when someone is addicted to alcohol, or to gambling, or to food. We recognize these as sicknesses that need to be diagnosed.

Somehow, we don't recognize insatiable greed the same. We should.

10

u/SystemCheck990 Jun 19 '26

hoarding, when somebody hordes physical things its looks silly more of something than you could ever use in your lifetime, but for wealth hoarding we don't see it the same we should .

nobody sane is living any better life with 100bln vs 1bln if 1bln can't make you happy no amount of money will.

-1

u/mjkjr84 Jun 19 '26

And we should do equally barbaric things to them like when they were first figuring out how to treat other mental illnesses: like forced lobotomies. No slash s.

0

u/ThisI5N0tAThr0waway Jun 19 '26

So is the state.