Very regressive tax. Wealth is really hard to tax effectively. The only people who will end up paying are middle class who have a lot of their net worth tied up in a home.
I watched the video, wondering if it's as misleading as the headline here, and it's even worse than that. This influencer is spreading misinformation for the benefit of rich assholes.
First, in the US and California today and in the future: home equity itself is not taxed as income or wealth while one holds it. Accumulated equity can become subject to capital gains tax if one sells the property for a profit that exceeds federal exclusion limits, or it can influence local property taxes if home improvements increase your overall assessment value. So the headline is a lie.
This is a lie: "The income tax started at 1%. Today it's over 50%."
Also a lie: "Every single time, they said it would only hit the rich. Every single time, the threshold dropped and the rate climbed. Now California is running the same playbook — and national politicians are watching."
The video's "113-year pattern of 'tax the rich' becoming 'tax everyone,' is also a lie.
This is a hilarious trend in arguments: "billionaires are fleeing California before the vote even happens." California doesn't need billionaires, lol.
He addresses, "what the proposed wealth tax mechanism means for your home, your equity, and your private property rights," by claiming that the tax on high income earners will somehow hurt the middle class. It won't.
But the video guy argues this as a syllogism - an if A, therefore B argument - which is false.
Taxes in California and elsewhere were never proposed as mainly wealth taxes, which therefore caused high taxes for everyone else. What's happened that higher taxes were proposed for many tax bands, which is why a broad selection of people were taxes. This was never exclusively about a wealth tax. Republicans want you to think that wealth taxes will somehow cause the 99% of the population problems, which is not true.
And as you note, wealthy people often avoid some of the taxation. That's because of a corrupt national law allowing them to store money tax-free off shore. That should be repealed.
The reason we're seeing this false video is because of California Proposition 40, a 2026 ballot measure backed by labor unions like SEIU-UHW that proposes a one-time 5% tax on state residents with a net worth over $1 billion. Will that have a bad impact on 99.9% of Californians? Nope. It's a bailout that billionaires can afford. It's a GREAT idea. Hope it happens. Everyone in California (looking at you, u/D) should vote YES on 3 November for this.
What stocks pay dividends these days? In theory they could tax stocks. Same logic someone would have said that you can't tax home equity before this vote happened.
What you can't tax are gold bars hidden away, or layered companies with unreported assets, or mutual accounting strategies like hawala or other similar systems that Indians and Chinese have.
It's very easy to make wealth disappear once you have an incentive to do it.
Log in
Anything you own gets taxed, even your home equity and Pokemon cards.
Very regressive tax. Wealth is really hard to tax effectively. The only people who will end up paying are middle class who have a lot of their net worth tied up in a home.
I watched the video, wondering if it's as misleading as the headline here, and it's even worse than that. This influencer is spreading misinformation for the benefit of rich assholes.
First, in the US and California today and in the future: home equity itself is not taxed as income or wealth while one holds it. Accumulated equity can become subject to capital gains tax if one sells the property for a profit that exceeds federal exclusion limits, or it can influence local property taxes if home improvements increase your overall assessment value. So the headline is a lie.
This is a lie: "The income tax started at 1%. Today it's over 50%."
Also a lie: "Every single time, they said it would only hit the rich. Every single time, the threshold dropped and the rate climbed. Now California is running the same playbook — and national politicians are watching."
The video's "113-year pattern of 'tax the rich' becoming 'tax everyone,' is also a lie.
This is a hilarious trend in arguments: "billionaires are fleeing California before the vote even happens." California doesn't need billionaires, lol.
He addresses, "what the proposed wealth tax mechanism means for your home, your equity, and your private property rights," by claiming that the tax on high income earners will somehow hurt the middle class. It won't.
It's true tho the rich pay no taxes now and only the middle class does. Cuz if f fed reserve tho .
But the video guy argues this as a syllogism - an if A, therefore B argument - which is false.
Taxes in California and elsewhere were never proposed as mainly wealth taxes, which therefore caused high taxes for everyone else. What's happened that higher taxes were proposed for many tax bands, which is why a broad selection of people were taxes. This was never exclusively about a wealth tax. Republicans want you to think that wealth taxes will somehow cause the 99% of the population problems, which is not true.
And as you note, wealthy people often avoid some of the taxation. That's because of a corrupt national law allowing them to store money tax-free off shore. That should be repealed.
The reason we're seeing this false video is because of California Proposition 40, a 2026 ballot measure backed by labor unions like SEIU-UHW that proposes a one-time 5% tax on state residents with a net worth over $1 billion. Will that have a bad impact on 99.9% of Californians? Nope. It's a bailout that billionaires can afford. It's a GREAT idea. Hope it happens. Everyone in California (looking at you, u/D) should vote YES on 3 November for this.
Any law they can write is any law they can re-write.
It starts with billionaires.
They'll re-write it to go after everyone else.
You can only tax stocks when they are cashed in. Not when they hold onto them and reinvest the dividends.
What stocks pay dividends these days? In theory they could tax stocks. Same logic someone would have said that you can't tax home equity before this vote happened.
What you can't tax are gold bars hidden away, or layered companies with unreported assets, or mutual accounting strategies like hawala or other similar systems that Indians and Chinese have.
It's very easy to make wealth disappear once you have an incentive to do it.
Private trusts = You will own nothing, manage everything, not be taxed, and be happy.
Offshore investments in the Cayman Islands is one way companies hide wealth so they don't get taxed.
Too much tax and you will have another revolutionary war.
Canadian Capital Gains Tax