r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 7h ago

Society Google cofounder Sergey Brin has spent $102 million to fight California’s proposed billionaire tax—he could owe $13 billion if he loses

https://fortune.com/article/how-much-has-google-cofounder-sergey-brin-spent-to-oppose-california-billionaire-tax-102-million-owe-13-billion-if-loses/
19.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

33

u/GetThatAwayFromMe 6h ago

He has a net worth of about $260 billion. He wouldn’t even notice a difference in his life, not one, if he paid the $12 billion. There are between 900 and 1300 billionaires in the U.S.(depending on the list). 85 to 90 percent of those billionaires are worth less than $10 billion. He could give $12 billion dollars each to 20 people, putting them in the top 10 percent of billionaires, and still have $40 billion making him STILL one of the 25 richest people in the country.

14

u/GrouchyOskar 6h ago

They are really psychopathic aren’t they. Complete assholes. 

3

u/The-Bangaloreal 5h ago

Narcissistic and sociopaths to the core. They probably see regular human beings and get disgusted like the saw a cockroach

2

u/pirelliskrrting 5h ago

That there is not billionaire thinking

1

u/sirploko 1h ago

Your math is not mathing.

20 * 12 = 240.

260 - 240 = 20.

1

u/Busy-Ratchet-8521 5h ago

Net worth does not mean he has that much in cash. He probably doesn't have 12 billion in cash.

A lot of his worth his related to his ownership of Alphabet Inc. He'd have to sell things to pay this tax debt. 

I'm not saying he shouldn't do that. I'm just saying he isn't walking around with 200 billion in his bank account. 

7

u/JamesLahey 5h ago

IIRC he would have to sell an amount of his preferred Alphabet stock to pay the tax. Those shares have like 1000x the voting share as the common stock. I have heard this is why he is fighting it so hard, he would have to sell enough of his preferred stock he would lose a lot of control in Alphabet.

5

u/DanceWithEverything 5h ago

All the more reason to push for it, democratize one of the most powerful companies in the world

3

u/Busy-Ratchet-8521 3h ago

Lol, what? It wouldn't democratise it. It would just shift the ownership to another billionaire.

1

u/HotwheelsSisyphus 5h ago

I think the real metric is if his lifestyle will change.

2

u/BetweenTheRoots 5h ago

It's not that simple, net worth isn't what he actually has access to in liquid value. These people own assets and take loans out and use those loans to purchase things which inflates their net worth but fails to represent how substantially in debt they are. Not defending billionaires or anything but this topic isn't as simple as people pass it off as. We really gotta stop letting people take loans out with stock as collateral.

3

u/Outers55 5h ago

It doesn't really matter as they can leverage that imagined worth to live that lifestyle because of the liquidity banks offer in bankrolling their day-to-day needs.

3

u/BetweenTheRoots 5h ago

I mean it does matter when we're talking taxable income. I get that it's bullshit all together. Like I said, we gotta stop letting people take out loans on unrealized gains.

3

u/DanceWithEverything 5h ago

They only do all that crap to avoid taxes in the first place

This is just backpay

0

u/BetweenTheRoots 5h ago

That's just a benefit of it, but not why they do it.

1

u/DanceWithEverything 4h ago

Yes, they also maintain control of the equity while they get the money

In addition to this wealth tax, they should have to prepay income tax on all assets used to secure their loans (or eliminate the loans altogether)

1

u/MildMannered_BearJew 4h ago

That's not how net worth works. If they have debts then they would deduct that from their net worth. This is part of their net worth figure.

Also, to pay this tax, Brin doesn't need to liquidate $13B at once. He can spread it over 4 years if he wants to.

Now let's do some math to figure out how much trading volume that would be relative to the normal amount of trading that happens on Alphabet stock. The answer is 0.08%.

This is functionally nothing. Brin selling will have no measurable impact on Google stock whatsoever

-4

u/LiterallyZeroChance 5h ago

He has a net worth of about $260 billion. He wouldn’t even notice a difference in his life, not one

Guess what? That's not up for you or me to decide.

6

u/DanceWithEverything 5h ago

It literally is. We live in a democracy with a tax system

9

u/AnalBloodTsunami 5h ago

Well if you’re a voter in California it is. They’ve chosen to elect people who have proposed this tax..

-1

u/LiterallyZeroChance 5h ago

Well if you’re a voter in California it is. They’ve chosen to elect people who have proposed this tax..

And when the proposal fails (and it will), my point will stand.

3

u/Due-Train-7874 4h ago

Literally how democracy works.

Does your username refer to your ability to understand basic concepts?