California Wants 5% From Every Billionaire #tax #wealth #news

There's a plan in California to impose a one-time 5% tax on people worth more than $1.1 billion. The goal is to raise tens of billions of dollars, mostly for healthcare. And look, I'm not opposed to the premise. I like progressive taxation and I like people having healthcare. If you're sitting on a billion dollars, you should be contributing more. That's not envy, that's math. You've benefited from a system that includes infrastructure. Legal protections, an educated workforce, and stable markets. It's reasonable to ask you to give more back into the system. But here's where good intentions collide with reality. The modern billionaire is not tied to one place. This is not 1879. They are structurally mobile. They don't think in terms of where do I live? They think in terms of Where am I treated best financially? And the moment you introduce a policy that creates a large one-time hit based on residency, you're basically inviting them to reconsider that question or that answer to that question. Not emotionally, not politically, financially. And that's a game they're extremely good at playing. Ultimize.