Getting stinking rich used to be a big part of the American Dream, but try telling that to the protesters waving placards at rush-hour traffic outside the main Tesla showroom in Silicon Valley last week.
asserted
Getting → get → Valley
One of them, a retired software engineer who gave his name only as Eric, clutched a sign that read: 'The maggots are getting fat.'
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maggots → give → sign
The maggots in question are California's 250 or so people worth more than $1billion – and the enthusiasm with which passing cars honk their horns in support of this 'Billionaire Takedown' demonstration suggests that many agree with Eric and his dozen or so fellow protesters.
uncertain
many → pass → Eric
'I don't mean it personally but billionaires should not exist,' he assured me rather unconvincingly.
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he → mean → me
That's a deeply ironic statement given we are standing in a place that has produced so many of them – the main drag in Palo Alto, the suburban town that was the birthplace of Silicon Valley and where most of the world's biggest tech giants spent their formative years.
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most → give → years
California has been so successful as a crucible of industrial and business innovation that, if it were a country, it would have the fifth-biggest economy in the world, fully 8 per cent ahead of Britain's.
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it → have → Britain
The billionaires living here have a combined net worth of a staggering $2.4trillion (£1.8trillion) – equivalent to roughly half the state's gross domestic product.
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billionaires → live → product
There was a time when Americans collectively admired billionaires because they truly believed that, with enough hard work and a bit of luck, anyone in the country could become one.
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anyone → be → country
Pictured: Anti-billionaire protesters in New York last year
But such is the ferocious backlash against the ultra-wealthy, especially those in tech, from Americans struggling to pay basic bills, that Californians are now on the verge of pushing through the world's first tax on billionaires.
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Californians → picture → billionaires
Today, Californians voting in the crucial midterm elections for the US Congress will also be asked to vote on a measure called Proposition 40.
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Californians → vote → measure
The deeply controversial 'Prop 40', as it's popularly known, will levy a one-off 5 per cent tax on the entire assets of any California resident worth more than $1billion (£750million).
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it → know → resident
Its supporters claim it will raise $100billion (£75billion) which will be used primarily to address federal cuts to healthcare, passed by Republicans in Congress in Washington.
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which → claim → Washington
Most ordinary Democrats say they support the wealth tax but party leaders are split on whether to back Prop 40, which was originally put forward by a health union boss.
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which → say → boss
There are few votes to be lost nowadays by going after the likes of California resident Mark Zuckerberg, the unlovable, all-powerful boss of Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, which agreed in August to pay $17billion (£13billion) to settle lawsuits over the harm the social networks have been doing to children.
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networks → be → children
The Prop 40 measure comes at a time when many Americans increasingly see the tech barons as bogeymen: destroying their jobs with artificial intelligence, their environment with vast data centres and their democracy by exploiting the political power that their mind-boggling wealth gives them.
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wealth → come → them
At a pro-Prop 40 rally in San Francisco last month, far-Left Senator and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Bernie Sanders thundered: 'People all over the country are asking the same question: how many bloody mansions do you need?
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you → thunder → mansions
How many yachts do you need?
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you → need → yachts
How many private jets and islands do you need?'
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you → need → jets
Few will deny that wealth inequality is growing.
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inequality → deny → ?
After all, we're no longer talking about billionaires but, in Elon Musk, history's first trillionaire.
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we → talk → Musk
Pictured: Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has warned that California – no longer his primary residence – is heading the way of the Soviet Union, which his family fled in 1979
It's also true that America's tax system is heavily skewed in favour of the ultra-wealthy, allowing some billionaires to avoid income tax completely by borrowing money against the value of their shares instead of paying themselves a salary.
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billionaires → picture → salary
But is arbitrarily dipping into the pockets of the richest people the right way to go about solving these issues?
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way → dip → issues
The billionaires are certainly not taking it on the chin, angrily claiming this is a shameless asset-grab by spiteful socialists motivated by envy that will catastrophically backfire on California, as its main job-creators decamp to other US states.
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creators → take → states
A coalition of some 70 billionaires has thrown an estimated $397million (£296million) into a long-running campaign that, if polls are right, has substantially reduced the number of Californians likely to vote for Prop 40.
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polls → throw → Prop
One of their craftier tactics has been to introduce two more financial Propositions, 41 and 42, which – if passed – would effectively nullify Proposition 40.
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which → introduce → Proposition
These billionaire campaigners are led by Google co-founder Sergey Brin who has warned that California – no longer his primary residence – is heading the way of the Soviet Union, which his family fled in 1979.
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family → lead → 1979
Others include the British billionaire, venture capitalist Sir Michael Moritz.
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Others → include → billionaire
Now living in San Francisco, Sir Michael complains that people like him 'have become pinatas for politicians' – a reference to the brightly coloured papier-mache containers filled with candy that are smashed open with a stick at celebrations.
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that → live → celebrations
He adds: 'Every time I see a story with "billionaire" in the headline, I know it is meant as a swipe.'
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it → add → swipe
Although he accepts that economic inequality needs to be 'narrowed', he favours doing it by eliminating 'loopholes' in the US tax system that enable the super-rich to drastically minimise their taxes.
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that → accept → taxes
Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) has a home with other super-wealthy residents in the fast-growing community called Incline Village in low-tax Nevada
Instead, he and his fellow billionaires argue, staunchly Democrat California is using its richest citizens as a money pot from which there is no guarantee they won't return again for more funds.
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they → picture → funds
For although Prop 40 officially allows only a one-off tax, few doubt that – if it is successful – politicians will be sorely tempted to do it again.
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politicians → allow → it
And next time, some fear, they might well target people who have rather less money than a billionaire.
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who → fear → billionaire
Politicians around the world, including in the UK, have been weighing up the merits of introducing a wealth tax of their own, and the outcome of the California vote will be watched with intense interest.
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outcome → include → interest
Britain's ultra-rich are already fleeing in large numbers following a succession of Labour tax changes, taking with them at least £120billion to more welcoming destinations such as Switzerland, Monaco and the United Arab Emirates, according to a recent analysis by Bloomberg.
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rich → flee → Bloomberg
That jaw-dropping figure – which includes the £2.6billion fortune of hedge fund manager Chris Rokos, who announced in September that he was relocating to Greece – is more than the combined wealth of the billionaires who have chosen to stay.
And yet Left-wingers – including trade union leaders – are threatening to make that exodus even bigger by pressuring Andy Burnham's government to enforce Britain's own wealth tax.
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exodus → drop → tax
An alliance of more than 100 UK-based millionaires, including football presenter Gary Lineker, and the group Tax Justice UK, is proposing an annual 2 per cent tax on wealth above £10million.
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alliance → base → 10million
Burnham has indicated he may be open to a wealth tax, warning his government may have 'to ask for a little more' from the richest people in Britain.
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government → indicate → Britain
Many Americans increasingly see the tech barons as bogeymen: destroying their jobs with artificial intelligence, their environment with vast data centres and their democracy by exploiting the political power that their mind-boggling wealth gives them.
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wealth → see → them
But while UK-based billionaires are having no trouble finding a new country as their home, it's even easier for their US peers who can simply move state, swapping a high-tax jurisdiction for a lower one.
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who → base → one
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
