Timpani
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645
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Jan 29, 2026 8:38 AM
Timpani
10024
645
11
inspector44
Serge Brin has payed $20 million to a political group to fight California's effort to place a one-time tax on billionaires. He could have used the money to pay his share of the tax and slept better at night. How greedy are these people that want to enjoy all the benefits of the state, but not pay their fair share?
DameDePiques
The fact that billionnaires CAN pour millions into fascist movements is already proof that you're not in a functional democracy. The fact that bribery is legal in the US is something that has always blown my European mind.
modis
The problem is WHERE their wealth exists. They don’t have billions of dollars in their bank accounts. It exists in stocks and shares that are “unrealized” so can’t be taxed, but in our deeply corrupt system, they can be traded or used as collateral to buy and fund whatever they want.
Don’t get me wrong, taxing them will help greatly, but it will do near nothing to affect the massive wealth disparity.
LazerSpacePirate
chata954
Eat the rich
FiftyShadesOfTiramisu
"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege." -Tommy Douglas
FiftyShadesOfTiramisu
In the same vein, Trotsky described fascism as "the most extreme imperialist reaction" to signs of a beginning proletarian revolution (such as the Occupy Wall Street movement or the popularity of a self-described socialist like Bernie Sanders). He believed it fell to the "petty bourgeoisie" (middle class) to side with either the proletariat or a counter-revolutionary fascist movement promising anti-communist and anti-union actions. Where they turned, large parts of the proletariat would follow.
Baconlovesyoutoo
The key is removing the 'even slightly' part of that statement. Kill Citizens United and tax the billionaires until they are extinct.
kurvarVillain
If it fails, we could try the ultra-wealthy, too. It's a cost I'm willing to sacrifice.
pushingchildrenintotraffic
history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes
circlebreaker
@Timpani Have you got a date for that post? I know that I'm curious about whether it was edited yesterday, on January 1st, or at some other time.
meme2zombie
walt0132
Honestly, best take on taxing billionaires that I've read. +1
ArchMagos
My hot take on this is that most if not all billionaires are actually worth a LOT less than they appear to be worth on paper, because the vast majority of it is unrealized assets in the stock market, which itself is propped up by a lot of accounting hoodoo, and if we were to ever tax billionaires at what they should be taxed at given their supposed wealth the entire ruse would come crumbling down around their ears and they know it. Hence, the insane response to any kind of taxation.
barstr7
There's no part of that scenario that doesn't sound entertaining as hell. AMC Theaters could make a special popcorn bucket for it. Maybe a big mug that says "Rich People Tears" on it or something.
ArchMagos
Rich should be in quotation marks on the mug.
OddOod
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a billionaire faced with taxes, must be in want of fascism.
FaeVikingPrincess
what a great opening line in the right-wing classic novel: Prejudice and Prejudice
OddOod
TBH I've never actually read it, only watched Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Is it notably right wing for the tim? or is it just old?
FaeVikingPrincess
It's just old.
SixSixxtySix
The 1% would pour money into an authoritarian political movement whether there was a threat of them being taxed fairly or not.
wadatahmydamie
Thiel and Vance are Curtis Yarvin stans. They want democracy replaced with techno feudalism.
skellis
They used to build universities with their names on it. This generation of billionairs is shovkingly immoral.
HandoB4Javert
Dontstopbelever2000ismyfavoritesoap
So happy for him he got exactly what he voted for
michiyl
As is evident by what's already happening - if anything, billionaires pay even less, and they continue to put more money into fascists
Eyeetsass
That’s called a return on investment.
LoudBirb
I mean... yeah, their end goal was always to bring back the days of the Robber Barons. They got a small taste of what it was like to be the new world's nobility before strict regulation and a strong labor movement stripped that from them.
Ever since then, everything they've done has been in service of getting that back.