I know of few people in my lifetime who did not complain about paying taxes. Someone, I think it might have been my father, said he would welcome the idea of having to pay $100,000 in income taxes because that would mean he earned several multiples more in income.
There’s lots of talk these days about income inequality and the ruses the rich employ to keep to a minimum their owed share of our collective governmental burden. On Monday while driving around I listened to segments of a panel discussion on NPR about the merits and implausibility of imposing an effective wealth tax on billionaires.
Which brings me to an article in Tuesday’s New York Times detailing how one of the founders of Google, the multi billionaire Sergey Brin, has shifted from being a progressive-minded supporter to a Trump-loving MAGA mogul whose central motivation these days is fighting a proposed California initiative to impose a one-time five percent tax on billionaires payable in one percent installments over five years. The monies would fund healthcare services, including hospitals, clinics, and emergency rooms that the state might not have the resources to underwrite (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/us/politics/sergey-brin-gg-soto-trump-california-billionaire-tax.html?unlocked_article_code=1.eVA.OV2r.sZZSA3HnWhI7&smid=url-share)
For Brin, his wealth tax would equal about $13.6 billion, not exactly pocket change, except when you consider Brin’s net worth is estimated at $273 billion. Would he really miss that installment payment of $2.720 billion a year? It’s rounding off money. Besides, wouldn’t he get some positive karma knowing his largesse is helping the lesser fortunate have access to healthcare?
I don’t begrudge Brin’s nor his cohorts’ fabulous wealth. They conceptualized many of the benefits we all enjoy, though, to be sure, their ideas were implemented and refined through the work of countless associates, no doubt some handsomely paid (unless they’re working in third world sweatshops piecing together hardware products).
Capitalism enabled their extraordinary wealth. Brin is 52. To plow through his fortune over the next 40 years (if he lives that long), he could spend $6.8 billion a year without sweating over his depleting balance (assuming his nest egg doesn’t inflate from new and continuing investments).
I am not advocating for a redistribution of wealth. Rather, in a nation where tens of millions go to sleep hungry every night, where tens of millions defer visiting doctors, dentists, optometrists because they cannot afford paying for visits and treatment, where millions of pre-schoolers do not enjoy proper child care because it is either unavailable or too expensive, one has to wonder how we can help balance the living equation of our citizenry.
If California voters approve the wealth tax in November, Sergey Brin would be billed $13.6 billion. But that wouldn’t happen because Brin has moved across the border to the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. Brin and his comrades in greenbacks have the means and dollars to evade what in the past was called “noblesse oblige,” the moral obligation of people of high status, wealth and power (the nobility of centuries ago) to act responsibly, ethically and charitably toward the less fortunate.
Pity. Brin et al should not dispense part of their fortunes because they pity their fellow countrymen. They should recognize that the strength of America rests not in their collective abilities and accumulation of wealth but in the opportunity they have to positively influence the collective lives of millions of Americans who farm our land, teach our children, guard our neighborhoods and borders, work in our factories, care for the infirmed, clean our homes, and perform all the mundane tasks of daily life that extraordinary, unimaginable wealth has freed them of doing.
With barely a hiccup to their balance sheets, the billionaire class would still be able to enjoy a lifestyle of yachts, mountain chalets, private jets, exotic retreats while the rest of American society would be able to breathe a little easier knowing a safety net is there if needed.
