There’s a proposal making the rounds in California to levy a 5 percent wealth tax on anyone worth more than $1 billion. The proposal isn’t guaranteed to make it to the ballot next year. Just like when Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York, lots of the ultra-wealthy are having a hissy fit. But it seems highly unlikely that Larry Page is going to take his $258 billion (more than the GDP of most countries) and leave his longtime home for the corn fields of Nebraska. The New York Times points out that:
The potential wealth tax is under debate as the income divide in the United States becomes increasingly stark. Recent data from the Congressional Budget Office showed that income inequality increased over a 33-year period ending in 2022, with the share of wealth held by families in the top 10 percent at around 69 percent, while the share held by families in the bottom 50 percent at just 3 percent.
