alifornia Democrats, supported by prominent left-wing leaders across the country, have proposed a ballot measure for a “one-time wealth tax” on the Golden State’s billionaires. California is already in the top ten states for per capita taxes, with a net domestic migration of about two million residents since 2016. More than 250 billionaires live there, who collectively possess more than $2 trillion. Democrats in favor of the tax see a $100 billion windfall to shore up medical spending. But skeptics see a good reason for billionaires to flee the Left Coast for more pro-business destinations.
If only Democrats in California were an outlier in fiscally disastrous ideas. But no. Apparently, they all suffer fever dreams of America’s wealthy swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck.
Voices across the Left seem to think that solving America’s problems is as simple as transferring wealth from a few bank accounts to many. Yet such state intervention would not only accomplish the opposite, but empower government to control (and impoverish) ordinary citizens.
Complaints About The Wealthy Are A Bait and Switch
Granted, there are natural reasons for everyday Americans to bristle at hearing stories of billionaires and trillionaires. The tales of excess and unimaginable wealth is far removed from the experience of the average worker, whose median income is around $65,000 a year.
The uber-wealthy don’t have to worry about changes in grocery or gas prices, or whether they can afford a vacation this year. About one in 15 Americans are millionaires, which means it’s possible you know a millionaire, though probably one who is a small business owner with some capital, rather than one ostentatiously flaunting money around.
Remember when former president Joe Biden in his January 2025 farewell address claimed the “ultra-wealthy” are a threat to “our entire democracy?” Later that year, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani more explicitly declared: “I don’t think that we should have billionaires.”
This is not a unique position among Democrats. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a discussed presidential Democrat contender for 2028, asserted in 2020: “billionaires should not exist.” Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders, a previous presidential candidate, is on the record saying: “I think billionaires should not exist.” And don’t get the Left started on Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire, something Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Ro Khanna, and new Democrat darling Graham Platner all found viscerally despicable.
Yet as much as we can be cynical towards uber-wealthy Americans, there’s just as much reason to be skeptical of those demanding their downfall. Think for a moment about who has the loudest, and most influential voice in American politics today.
As John O. McGinnis argues in his recent book Why Democracy Needs the Rich, the answer is obvious: it is “the intelligentsia, or chattering class, including journalists, intellectuals, and entertainers,” who leverage the media, academy, and entertainment industry, to sway public opinion. “Like an unseen current in a river, their influence is constant, even as often relatively inexperienced political appointees with different views struggle to control the flow.” To disempower and silence the wealthy would effectively grant more power and influence to woke power blocs.
Hellbound and Down 