this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026
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These folks don't actually wanna leave. Peter Thiel will blow a lot of smoke about how he's totally gonna leave California because of Communisim or whatever, but there's a couple things to keep in mind.
The billionaires are spending mad money to fight this tax. This is not the action of someone who plans to leave the state.
The infrastructure that makes the billionaires rich cannot be moved from California easily. A person is easy to move, a warehouse less so. Those assets can be taxed, even if the owner leaves the state.
Fuck these guys. Billionaires do not contribute to the economy; they suck out the wealth and hoard it. Even in the worst case scenario of rich folks leaving the state with their ill gotten gains, the state wasn't gonna get that money anyways The worst case scenario for California of the mythical "Wealth Flight" is a bunch of parasites moving elsewhere.
These parasites have had it too good for too long. A measly little one time tax is a step in the right direction that I hope opens the door to more aggressive taxation on these dregs of society.
Mad for regular people money. From what I've read, what they've spent is a small fraction of what said tax would cost them (though if you've seen different, I love new info!)
These folks don't usually have warehouses, but whatever, say physical infrastructure. All that can stay, the boss can roll out, rock in Texas and take their private jet to and fro as needed. (Or, do their stuff remotely. I doubt Thiel is walking through cubicles etc.)
The worst case is that the tax revenue that those billionaires bring (which sure, in a moral vacuum should probably be higher) goes elsewhere leaving California needing to plug the fiscal gap by taxing less wealthy folks or eliminating/reducing services.