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Economics Nobel Laureates' Letter Supporting the California Billionaire Tax [pdf]

33 points · 29 comments · marojejian

marojejian · 1789845926 · focus · HN ↗
While the concept of progressive wealth taxation is very important and good, executing on such taxes is very hard.
I'm skeptical this bill is actually a positive step in the overall campaign. That said, I think the more discussion about the concept, the better.
1. toomuchtodo · 1789845996 · focus · HN ↗
  ~69% of Gen Z support it. Time to success is a function of the age out rate of the 55+ voting cohort (~2M/year).
  > A new CBS/YouGov poll released Sunday found that 69 percent of respondents under 30 favor candidates who support raising taxes on wealthy Americans.
  <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6096809-gen-z-taxes-wealthy/" rel="nofollow">https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6096809-gen-z-taxes-we...
  <a href="https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/cms/prod_cms_alt/file/2026/09/13/6a86957c-2fab-480d-9e48-94f9e48ab498/cbsnews_20260913_sun.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/cms/prod_cms_alt/file/...
  1. rvz · 1789847070 · focus · HN ↗
    The desired outcome is that billionaires should pay their "fair share". That's fine, but are the supporters of this sure that this is the best way to do it?
    Also, do they know who really is going to eventually pay for this tax? Guess. (It is not most billionaires.)
    On top of that, those taxes will require founders to liquidate their holdings and will also affect employees holding the stock as well so it actually hits tech workers harder.
    It's bad enough that the large tech companies are now funding AI data centers by selling their own stock. So why would the founders want to tolerate a >$1B-$40B hit to their own net worth for a tax that really is not a one time tax which the threshold of this "wealth tax" will eventually get lowered into the 100M zone?
    avmich · 1789850262 · focus · HN ↗
    > That's fine, but are the supporters of this sure that this is the best way to do it?
    As I understand, this is the best way to do which we have so far. We are welcome to find a better way while we're using this approach.
    lotsofpulp · 1789853856 · focus · HN ↗
    How is a marginal land value tax not a far, far better way? It’s already taxed, just need to multiply it by a different number.

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