AOC's claim that "you can't earn a billion dollars" just got fact-checked by Y Combinator's Paul Graham, who spent two decades professionally evaluating the founders who become billionaires — and his data says she's wrong. The exchange cuts to the heart of California's tax debate: whether wealth taxes targeting tech founders are a matter of fairness or a misdiagnosis of how Silicon Valley actually creates value. With Sanders and Khanna pushing a 5% annual wealth tax on unrealized gains, and California already running structural deficits of $20–30 billion a year, the stakes for getting this question right couldn't be higher.
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.