The announcement of a march in support of billionaires, claiming that the state of California was at risk of losing a precious asset in the ultra-wealthy, drew ridicule and confusion, with many refusing to believe it could be serious. Roughly 20 people joined the march, presenting at various levels of seeming earnestness, and surrounded by counter protesters and reporters.
This baffling action came as a response to a proposed state ballot measure put forward by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, calling for a one-time 5% wealth tax on anyone with a net worth over one billion dollars. The money would go toward replacing $100 billion cuts to healthcare services resulting from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” And the response has shown that the march organizers were right about one thing: billionaires would rather move out of this state than pay even a fraction of their fair share. Multiple California-based billionaires have voiced their outrage, and in some cases plans to relocate (although they’ll likely keep second or third homes in the state). As for the claim that tech CEOs create jobs and prosperity wherever they base their companies, long-term residents of the Bay Area and beyond have felt the opposite effect. When high-paid tech workers move in, rent rises and small businesses and working families are pushed out.
A one-time 5% wealth tax moves the conversation in the right direction, but doesn’t go nearly far enough. There is no justification for this tiny group of people hording their enormous wealth while healthcare workers lose their jobs from lack of funding. And to suggest that billionaires are the group in need of advocacy in this moment is simply ridiculous. Anyone who has reached billionaire status did so on the backs of working people, whose labor produces the actual value in society. We don’t need them, they need us!
