AOC's claim that "you can't earn a billion dollars" just collided with Paul Graham's two decades of data as a professional billionaire scout — and California's own nonpartisan analysts simultaneously confirmed the state's spending outpaced revenue by 10 points, making new wealth taxes an even harder sell. Sanders and Khanna are still pushing a 5% annual tax on unrealized gains despite Europe's wealth tax failures, while the California governor's race splits between candidates who want to raise taxes and those demanding accountability for $150 billion in new spending that delivered nothing measurable. The core question driving all of it: does taxing wealth create prosperity, or just accelerate the exodus of the people who build things?
Half of California's billionaire wealth has fled the state—and the wealth tax isn't even on the ballot yet.
San Jose's mayor goes on national TV to warn Sacramento that their wealth tax scheme will backfire spectacularly.