I’ve always maintained that we have the best government money can buy, and it appears the price of the California branch has just gone up. A few gentlemen of the “Billionaire Class” (a title that sounds like a royal decree but with less lace) are pooling $35 million to ensure their bank accounts remain as undisturbed as a tomb. 🧵
They’ve named their little club “Building a Better California.” It is a charming title. In my day, when a man set out to skin a cat, he usually called it “Improving the Feline Aesthetic.” They claim they want a “livable state,” though I suspect they mean livable for those who own a private island or two.
The crux of the matter is a 5% tax on billionaires. To you or me, 5% is a nickel on a dollar. To a man with eleven zeroes in his ledger, it is an act of high-seas piracy. They’ve retreated to a “Signal chat”—a modern version of a smoky backroom, only the smoke is digital and the whispers travel at light-speed.
They say this money will “protect innovation.” It is a grand word, “innovation.” It usually means the art of inventing new ways to keep what belongs to the public in the pockets of the few. They are terrified of a “wealth tax,” which is simply the government’s way of saying, “You’ve won the game; now pay for the table.”
So, the “Capital War” begins. One side spends forty million to keep their gold, the other spends forty million to take it. In the end, the candidates are fed, the printers are busy, and the common man is left to wonder why the “Better California” always looks remarkably like the old one, only more expensive.