Making Tech Headlines · Page 6

The Wealth Tax Debate Finds Wealth Can Also Buy Ads

November 10, 2026 at 6:01 AM EST · New York time

California voters rejected Proposition 40, a proposed one-time 5% tax on billionaires, the Associated Press reported. Tech leaders outspent the measure's backers by roughly 10 to 1 in the campaign against it, according to TechCrunch. The vote settled the fate of a proposal aimed at an exceptionally wealthy group in a state closely associated with the technology industry. It did not settle the competing forecasts about how those people would have responded had the measure passed. Founders and economists interviewed by TechCrunch before the vote were divided over whether the tax would have driven wealthy residents away or simply reduced their fortunes. That disagreement was central to the business and economic assessment of the proposal. A tax rate can be stated precisely, while its effects on behavior must be estimated. Voters made their choice amid competing claims about those possible effects and a large imbalance in campaign spending. The result is an especially tidy illustration of the advantages that come with being the subject of a debate about vast wealth. Opponents had substantial resources to make their case against the tax. California's voters made the decision, and the fortunes under discussion proved fully capable of funding a very loud discussion about themselves.

Satire. Not factual reporting. Read the original reporting from the linked publishers.