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California is chasing wealth that has feet

293 points · 870 comments · idbnstra

  1. binlog · · focus · HN ↗
    Wealth taxes are a symptom of a broken tax system. If you let someone get to hundreds of billions in net worth and then realize they haven’t been appropriately paying back into the system, it’s already too late. Like the article says they can simply say “no” in a variety of ways, from fighting in court to simply leaving.
    1. jdm2212 · · focus · HN ↗
      Larry Page owns about 5% of Alphabet, which is worth $4T, so he has $200B give or take. Which part of that do you think reflects a "broken tax system"? Companies should get kneecapped if their market cap gets too high? Founders shouldn't be allowed to keep even a single digit percent of the company?
      1. binlog · · focus · HN ↗
        The broken part is that there is third world-level poverty on the streets outside Google’s offices, working class people cannot afford to live in the Bay Area, and a fifth of California lives in poverty.
        1. johnsmith1840 · · focus · HN ↗
          More taxes should solve that.

          Read somewhere that SF spends roughly 50k$-80k$ per homeless person per year.

          Taxing more doesn't solve a massively inefficient system at it's core. Just like US education, we spend more than any country on earth, why is it still bad?

          Answering that question with a "if only we had more money" is a really poor argument. The CA tax fundamentals are bad, pooring more cash onto the fire will not fix that.

          1. peab · · focus · HN ↗
            I think it's hitting 96k per homeless person a year now. But yes, it's the tax system's fault.
            1. johnsmith1840 · · focus · HN ↗
              96k$?! Those are rookie numbers. I propose a mclaren for every homeless person. We will weath tax all stocks in the fortune 500 to pay for it, crash the stocks and solve inequality.
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