The wealth tax might be one of the most idiotic ideas to come out of California in a while. The wealthy are already leaving California and this will be the final nail in the coffin. I left San Francisco in 2018 for Tennessee and so glad I did. I wouldn’t have been able to buy a house, accrue real savings, and run a small business nearly as successfully from CA. Most certainly I’d still be renting a studio apartment the size of a closet with no washer, dryer, and dishwasher.
The All-In Podcast hosts have already said they are looking at moving out of CA if this passes. If you’re wealthy you’d be fiscally irresponsible to stay. Wealthy will flee leaving a socialist state which only supports those who depend of the state. We all know that works out.
Democrats vilifying the wealthy, while strategically might be effective is frankly un-American and is breeding a population of pessimistic, disillusioned, radical socialists.
sedawkgrep•57m ago
Elizabeth Warren, who has been a champion of financial reforms - specifically to assist in helping the middle and lower classes - is a proponent of wealth taxes.
That means a lot more to me than your grumpy, politically charged anecdote.
nodesocket•54m ago
I'm not sure using Elizabeth Warren as a measuring stick of sound political policy is sane.
sedawkgrep•40m ago
shrug
Well, between you and her, I'll take the senator, former Harvard Law professor, and architect of the CFPB.
potato3732842•25m ago
That's not the endorsement you think it is. Quite the opposite really.
Warren was "cool" 10+yr ago when she was a fairly niche issue academic on the fringes of federal politics. Obama should have made her head of the CFPB as that was here whole thing.
Instead she sold her soul to the DNC and became a useless unremarkable senator who just spews whatever party line drivel the consultants say the median voter is receptive to that day.
m-hodges•5m ago
It’s always funny when people reveal that they don’t know what the DNC is or does.
lapcat•30m ago
I'm confused by your argument. The proposed wealth tax is on billionaires. That's fewer than 200 people in California. You're obviously not one of them, and never were one of them, so it wouldn't raise your taxes. And it sounds like you left San Francisco not because of taxes but because of the cost of housing.
San Francisco used to be a city where normal people could afford to live. The current insane price of housing was caused primarily by the growth of the tech industry. It's true that the tech industry in California created a vast amount of wealth, but that wealth is concentrated into relatively few hands, especially the billionaires. The wealth did not trickle down to normal people; what did trickle down was housing inflation and gentrification.
If the tech industry left Silicon Valley—and there's no inherent reason why it needs to be concentrated in Silicon Valley, given the technology to work from anywhere—perhaps San Francisco would be better off in general and return to normalcy.
ppeetteerr•15m ago
A one-time wealth tax doesn't seem to make a ton of sense.
The current loop hole is that loans are not taxed so people take out loans against their assets thus never paying income tax. Tax those loans and refund taxes when the loans are repaid.
nodesocket•2h ago
The All-In Podcast hosts have already said they are looking at moving out of CA if this passes. If you’re wealthy you’d be fiscally irresponsible to stay. Wealthy will flee leaving a socialist state which only supports those who depend of the state. We all know that works out.
Democrats vilifying the wealthy, while strategically might be effective is frankly un-American and is breeding a population of pessimistic, disillusioned, radical socialists.
sedawkgrep•57m ago
That means a lot more to me than your grumpy, politically charged anecdote.
nodesocket•54m ago
sedawkgrep•40m ago
Well, between you and her, I'll take the senator, former Harvard Law professor, and architect of the CFPB.
potato3732842•25m ago
Warren was "cool" 10+yr ago when she was a fairly niche issue academic on the fringes of federal politics. Obama should have made her head of the CFPB as that was here whole thing.
Instead she sold her soul to the DNC and became a useless unremarkable senator who just spews whatever party line drivel the consultants say the median voter is receptive to that day.
m-hodges•5m ago
lapcat•30m ago
San Francisco used to be a city where normal people could afford to live. The current insane price of housing was caused primarily by the growth of the tech industry. It's true that the tech industry in California created a vast amount of wealth, but that wealth is concentrated into relatively few hands, especially the billionaires. The wealth did not trickle down to normal people; what did trickle down was housing inflation and gentrification.
If the tech industry left Silicon Valley—and there's no inherent reason why it needs to be concentrated in Silicon Valley, given the technology to work from anywhere—perhaps San Francisco would be better off in general and return to normalcy.