**The Billionaire’s Tax Has Los Angeles Techies Going Wild**
You won’t believe the latest development in the billionaire tax debate in California – a group of tech enthusiasts is organizing a “March for Billionaires” in San Francisco. That’s right, folks, a tongue-in-cheek protest that’s all about vilifying the wealthy and, ahem, dropping them a bill.
I stumbled upon the event on a mysterious website that basically just popped up out of nowhere. At first, I thought it was just some troll trying to get a rise out of me, but it appears this is actually a real thing happening this Saturday. The mastermind behind the march is none other than Derik Kaufmann, the founder of AI startup RunRL. He’s footing the bill (no joke intended) and is dead set against the proposed wealth tax.
For those who haven’t been keeping up, the “Billionaire Tax Act” would slap a 5% tax on Californians with over a billion bucks in the bank. The goal is to fund public services and offset some federal funding cuts, but it’s got the big tech players freaking out. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom has said he’d veto the bill if it passes, but the tech elite aren’t taking any chances – they’re lobbying hard in Sacramento to kill the bill.
Kaufmann’s worried about the impact on the startup scene in Silicon Valley. He thinks the tax is a total nightmare for founders, who’d be forced to liquidate shares to pay it off and face huge losses and capital gains taxes. Many founders would end up paying outlandish sums, and there’s no precedent for a tax like this in the US.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – will anyone actually show up to this thing? Kaufmann’s being cagey about numbers, but says there’ll be “a few dozen” attendees. Yeah, I’m imagining a bunch of people just wandering around in t-shirts with a protest slogan.
This whole thing is getting crazier by the day, folks. Will the march really happen? Who knows? One thing’s for sure – the debate over the billionaire tax is getting wild.
