Max LeibmanThem: If you tax billionaires, they’ll just leave.
Me: Why are you listing the benefits? I thought you were against this.
Me: Why are you listing the benefits? I thought you were against this.
Chris Petrilli
Peet Tetteroo@maxleibman it's a myth they leave..
@Pettet8 Indeed. It's a myth that anything would be different at all. "What would motivate the wealthy to work if they were heavily tasked?"
What in the world motivates them to work now? What would be different about that? And—critically—what evidence do we have that we wouldn't be just as well off without that contribution of any given (or every given) centimillionaire?
What in the world motivates them to work now? What would be different about that? And—critically—what evidence do we have that we wouldn't be just as well off without that contribution of any given (or every given) centimillionaire?
Jess F@maxleibman
@Pettet8 yep. We passed a millionaire's tax in MA. Millionaires didn't leave and it's generated more $$ than we expected. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/delivering-on-fair-share-impact-report
@Pettet8 yep. We passed a millionaire's tax in MA. Millionaires didn't leave and it's generated more $$ than we expected. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/delivering-on-fair-share-impact-report
Reinald Kirchner@j_feral @maxleibman @Pettet8 Same in Norway. They raised wealth tax, and very few people left the country.
Magnus Ahltorp@Reinald @j_feral @maxleibman @Pettet8 In Sweden we removed wealth tax, and now we have Nazis controlling the government.
@Reinald
Yeah my great uncle in law who i visited in tau recently... had a maga hat (maybe a bad joke? I like to think) ...owns a lot of land and cattle and is certainly never leaving his beloved country
Óscar Morales Vivó@maxleibman @Pettet8 Apparently rich people are motivated by being given money while poor people are motivated by having money taken away.
Funny how that works.
DaveDo the [mb]illionaires actually do any work at all?
Frans Veldman ⁱ ᵃᵐ ᵃⁿᵗⁱᶠᵃ🚩Yup. Where would they leave to? In all decent countries they would be more taxed than in the US.
The ones who are leaving right now are the scientists. At some point, this will also hurt the billionaires. It is hard to become/remain a billionaire without high tech and novelties.
Andreas K@FransVeldman
Check your history books.
You only need brutal enough feudalism to extract every last bit of value out of the lower classes.
@maxleibman @Pettet8
Momo@Pettet8
And even if they do leave: The money that they have plundered off the countrys people is gone either way.
So, all we can do is set an example by setting up high taxes to restrict over-wealth and leave some corpses rotting on gallows at the country border with the sign "PIRATES NOT WELCOME".
@maxleibman
XANTRONIX@maxleibman This is all that Maoist, Marxist, beefcake Twitch streamer Hank Pecker's fault! If it wasn't for him Zootopia Mamdani wouldn't even be here !!!
/s
Savera@maxleibman they can’t leave their prey
Sym (public node) 
@maxleibman What's the downside? We'd lose all the taxes they aren't paying? The jobs they eliminated? The local jails would be short a Luigi?
@SymTrkl
There tend to be an assumption in neoliberal orthodoxy that billionaires are the good guys.
While almost any any rational and scientific approach (excluding the "research payed for by the billionaires and their cronies, aka conflict of interest stuff") is rather obvious that these are generally not the good guys.
You do not end up a billionaire being nice and not stepping over a couple of dead bodies. Even if they have fixers for the bodies.
@maxleibman
Nicole ParsonsThat's the hypocrisy of the billionaire Epstein Class.
They pay little in taxes, but spend $57 million to overturn a tax in a state where they don't live.
https://www.businessinsider.com/sergey-brin-stock-gift-alphabet-google-wealth-2025-5
They ignore the law, but fund lawsuits to get impunity anyway.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/republicans-ted-cruz-harriet-hageman-bills-shield-big-oil-gas-climate-liability-lawsuits/
They consider real human beings as NPC (non player characters), while seeking rulings on "AI personhood" along with "corporate personhood".
@Npars01
That's easy to explain.
How to know you are trading with a NPC in most games: they have limited gold, making selling loot inconvenient.
So obviously if the guy you are talking with is not capable of buying your $20m shack for cash, he must be part of life game inventory they are playing, basically a NPC.
@maxleibman
@Npars01
And their life is a game; how else would their beds be magically made every day, and their toilets always clean, even after a night vomiting like a Greek hero?
@maxleibman
And their life is a game; how else would their beds be magically made every day, and their toilets always clean, even after a night vomiting like a Greek hero?
@maxleibman
Muse_Lux@maxleibman **BWAHAHAHAHA!!** You know how many years I've been saying that?
High five, my man! 👍
Nivex 🐧 📻@maxleibman And go where? There should be no place on this planet where they feel welcome.
"If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to." -- The Operative, Serenity
Remy Whisker 
@maxleibman I love the shit going down in New York. "Oh no don't tax us for owning empty property, we will just leave." Like yeah, no shit Sherlock, that's the point.
Conny Nasch@remywhisker @maxleibman However, they usually do not sell the empty property, just give it another name. 🤔
Paul M@maxleibman yep, here's the research showing that it's mostly myth https://taxjustice.uk/blog/debunking-the-myth-of-the-millionaire-exodus/
LisPi@maxleibman If we're lucky and everyone taxes them, perhaps they'll walk into the sea to avoid taxes.
🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑
scrottie (he/him/them)
NickThey can't take land and buildings with them.
So they either continue to own (and pay taxes on) them or they sell them and the new owner pays taxes on them.
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE@maxleibman I've read an analysis which shows that they won't, and in fact they don't.
The ones who care that much about how much they're taxed are apparently the not-so-rich who are just managing to cling by their fingertips to the image and lifestyle they would like other people to think they can actually afford.
Face Thumb@maxleibman If we tax them some of them *may* leave. If we don't tax them all of them *will* stay.
With a wealth tax, for each billionaire they either stay and pay the tax or leave. That's what we call a win win.
FoolishOwl@maxleibman Money is just numbers in databases. Their wealth is just documents that say they own things. They may have never even seen most of the buildings and structures they claim to own, where we work and live.
They only own these things because they say they own them. All we have to do is agree to ignore them.
The aim of the game is to transfer some of those numbers into numbers for the public good.
@TheLancashireman @maxleibman After generations of manipulation and obfuscation, one of the really complicated problems is going to be learning how to measure things again.
Jules she/her@maxleibman "Do you want more people like me, or fewer?" "Well actually..."
Wendinlondon 🇺🇦@maxleibman And, go on? 😹
katherine montalto@maxleibman Tax them everywhere they go
RRB@maxleibman If everyone insisted on making billionaires pay their fair share, eventually the only places left for the billionaires would be failed states, where they belong. The alternative is for billionaires to turn the rest of the world into failed states by draining the state of resources. If billionaires do not want to pay for a government, they should try living without one.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/failed-states
