Proposition 40, California’s 5 percent tax on billionaires, may be a flawed initiative, as many have argued. But it at least represents an attempt to reverse in a small way the dynamics creating the unprecedented disparity in wealth in our society.
There is another initiative on this year’s ballot in California, Proposition 3, that would make the so-called “millionaire tax” permanent, and this is probably a more significant policy move than Prop 40 in the short term.
Meanwhile, the billionaires opposing Prop 40 (and Prop 3) have managed to add two cynical initiatives, Props 41 and 42. If one or both pass, they would negate the effect of Prop 40.
So goes the annals of class warfare out here in California. But if this all seems like just another wacky episode of the West Coast Follies, you can be certain that what starts here will not end here.
I don’t think this type of citizen action is based mainly in the hate of billionaires, but in the widespread inability of anyone else to accumulate enough resources to buy a house, start a family, and get ahead.
And that is a problem that is not confined to Golden State.
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