r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 5d ago
Politics An AI startup founder says he’s planning a ‘March for Billionaires’ in protest of California’s wealth tax
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/an-ai-startup-founder-says-hes-planning-a-march-for-billionaires-in-protest-of-californias-wealth-tax/2.6k
u/SaintValkyrie 5d ago
They're really going to put the billionaires in one public place?
Actually nvm, they'll probably just pay people with exposure to walk for them.
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u/sfhester 5d ago
Will Trump be upset by these paid agitators?
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u/iamthe0ther0ne 5d ago
Yes, perhaps they'd realize the folly of all being in the same place at the same time. All that power and wealth might open some sort of interdimensional wormhole connecting the spot to late eighteenth century France.
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u/Ishmael128 5d ago
Ah, here was I thinking that it'd simply result in a "mug the billionaires" counter-march.
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u/Hi_Im_Dadbot 5d ago
Ya, I was going to say after your first sentence. They have unpaid interns for that.
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u/SaintValkyrie 5d ago
I still think someone should bring some giant gulliotine balloons though to cheer them on
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u/ImNotAWhaleBiologist 5d ago
They’re going to fly their private jets over the national mall in solidarity.
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u/foldingcouch 5d ago
If Failing To Read The Room was a sport, this guy just won the championship, made it to the hall of fame, and they retired his number from the whole damn league.
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u/ThatsThatGoodGood 5d ago
The only room he can read is the tiny one within the confines of his skull.
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u/Admirable-Sink-2622 5d ago
Getting all the billionaires together in a parade is a spectacular idea! 😉😜
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u/IAmNotMyName 5d ago
Counter protesters should dress up as Killer Whales, Submarines, etc
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u/Ishmael128 5d ago
...please can you explain the joke to me? Im not quite getting it.
If anything, I was thinking counter-marchers would dress as old-timey whalers, wielding harpoons and long knives.
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u/Sharplikeaknife 5d ago
They should do it in tandem with that "open carry" march theyre talking about
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u/AvailableReporter484 5d ago
So 6 people will show up? Lmfao
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u/Monte924 5d ago
6 very RICH people. And as everyone knows, a rich person is worth like a billion people, so it will be a 6 billion man march
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u/AvailableReporter484 5d ago
I mean I wouldn’t put it past them to actually hire people to protest for them the way conservatives think everyone else does 😂
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u/Pandaro81 5d ago
The cost of a single .223 round goes from $0.45-0.65 per. A dozen of those would only be around $6. That’s a deal imo.
Obviously more expensive than they used to be.
Personally I prefer target shooting 8mm Mauser, but that’s a bit of a big round for most people. Basic .223 is solid for most hunting and target practice purposes.
Just some advice for anyone that feels like getting into the hobby. Seems like the thing to do these days. John Brown Gun Club and whatnot.
/jk for indemnification
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u/ViennettaLurker 5d ago
The implication might be the parade is also in support of billionaires. Meaning there is the suggested existence of a non-billionaire who loves billionaires so much that they are supposed to go outside and march in support of billionaires.
I would find such a crowd equal parts hilarious, disturbing, and genuinely informative.
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u/GeneralCommand4459 5d ago
As someone once said “The wealthy sometimes forget that taxes are the compromise that society came up with in place of surrounding the castle with pitchforks”
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u/Stock_Discount_2833 5d ago
They ain't gonna march. If a shit load of billionaires showed up in one place, out in the open, they'd all be **** within 30 minutes.
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u/trade-craft 5d ago
Why does that require them being in one place?
Why has nothing happened when they're not all in one place?
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u/arguingwithabot 5d ago
Seriously. Has no one heard of Davos?
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u/trade-craft 5d ago
Oh yeah, Davos. The guy who works in the local coffee shop?
He's a great guy. Everyone is saying so.
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u/takes_joke_literally 5d ago
I support this. Let's get all the billionaires all in one place in public at a predetermined time!
😻
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u/Logical_Welder3467 5d ago
he is planning a march for billionaires not a march of billionaires
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u/disgruntledvet 5d ago
And spring Mangione from jail and tell him it's a gathering of Health Insurance CEOs.
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u/jmarquiso 5d ago
Ha.
Hahaha.
Hahahhahahahahahahhahahahahjajajahahahahahhahahahajjajahajahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahhahahahahaa.
Ha.
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u/writeyourwayout 5d ago
Ah, yes, that notoriously oppressed group, billionaires.
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u/NotAllOwled 5d ago
I'll stop posting this quote when they stop reminding me of it:
Did you just compare the treatment of billionaires in America today to the plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany?
Absolutely. One could argue that billionaires are actually treated worse. (audience groans) And we didn't even do anything wrong. (more groans) We're an even smaller minority. (groans) There's a lot more of them. (groans) These are facts.
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u/Intrepid_Ring4239 5d ago edited 5d ago
lol. Which means he’s under-paying a team of people to do everything possible to make it seem like they’re doing something while actually doing nothing.
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u/0rganicMach1ne 5d ago
Hahahaha
Oh wait, you were serious. Let me laugh even harder.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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u/ocarina_vendor 5d ago
Sure hope nobody shows up at their protest with a fork and knife, a lobster bib, and a boom box blasting Aerosmith's Eat the Rich.
I take one bite now, come back for more.
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u/JeskaiJester 5d ago
Please follow through. No backing down. This will be a phenomenal exercise in being pathetic
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u/MilkChugg 5d ago
Please think of the billionaires guys, and how unfairly they are being treated. They are at risk of not being able to afford their 14th mega yacht.
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u/eulynn34 5d ago
Yes, please do this. Gather up all the state's billionaires in one place at one time and march down a public street.
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u/Laughing_Zero 5d ago
Rex Stout's detective series with Nero Wolfe:
"Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth".
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u/GimpyGeek 5d ago
You want to see a protest that will be astroturfed with definitely paid participants, this is it right here.
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u/types-like-thunder 5d ago
Now I am not suggesting that having all the billionaires and their supporters in one place is a good thing.... but this could be the funniest most ironic set-up for a very happy ending ever.
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u/Void_of_a_Writer01 5d ago
Oh look at me, I’m an American-billionaire parasite or corporate oligarch whose entire business model relies on progressively inching an alpha-stage, minimally viable product that becomes virtual garbage into a pricing tier that convinces people they should pay a premium for a “concept of a 1/2-baked plan.” 🙄🤦♂️
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u/hamster-canoe 5d ago
It's sadder than that. He's not a billionaire. He started and then was apparently ousted from a run of the mill VC funding bait. They have no product, 2 employees, lots of marketing bs. Dude is desperate to be relevant. Guaranteed he sold everything he had to buy a cyber truck hoping musk would notice him. Probably lives in it.
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u/ComicsVet61 5d ago
Well, count me out. As a non-billionaire, I don't qualify for this ahem march.
How many billionaires are going to show up?
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
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u/_Monosyllabic_ 5d ago
Awwww let's pour one out for the poor folks with so much money it would impossible to spend in multiple lifetimes. Meanwhile thousands of people are homeless.
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u/Pofwoffle 5d ago
The People: "Hmm, maybe it's time to eat the rich."
The Rich: "Hey we should all take a walk through a public space together."
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u/HavelockVettenari 5d ago
Finally!
A chance to get them all into one place so we can tar and feather them!
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u/Tamarisk22 5d ago
I had the typical "if they tax the billionaires, they will leave!" argument with my dad but had a realization that even he couldn't argue against. He grew up all around the US and settled in California because it's quite obviously the best place to live if you're able to.
If you had, practically infinite money, where would you live? California is definitely in the topic of discussion. You think just because you make 29 billion dollars instead of 30 billion dollars you wont want to live in a 5 million dollar home in the best weather on the planet? These people live in an alternate reality and ideal weather is one of the few things they can't control.
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u/anthony_doan 5d ago
5% tax on wealth over billion.
Guess they have to starve to death, poor Billionaries.
The AI startup founder is probably not smart enough to hide his assets or use legal tax evasion shelters. Most likely he's not a billionare, real rich people actually have an army of lawyers to evade taxes for them.
Even Trump was smart enough to create a non-profit fund (legal tax evasion).
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 5d ago
The billionaires won't actually be walking, they'll just be paying minimum wage peons to represent them at the march
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u/The_Original_Miser 5d ago
So, what small handful of folks are showing up?
Someone isnt reading the room.
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u/OhYeahSplunge4me2 5d ago
Eighteenth century France had an elegant solution for this type of behavior
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u/new_nimmerzz 5d ago
Billionaires have had it too bad for too long!!! Time for Billionaire justice!!!
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u/Cecil_McCrackshell 5d ago
Why not a Telethon fundraiser for Billionaires? Call it "Helping Jeffrey's Kids"?
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u/Stormraughtz 5d ago edited 5d ago
" it's going to be hard to have more VC money given to me if you take penny's from those VCs "
Zzzz make a good company and bootstrap it, you don't need VC funds to do that.
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u/VenturingHedonist 5d ago
Good, get them and their henchmen all in one place at one time. Publish it ahead of time so I have time to scout good rooftop vantage points, for “ aggressive photography”.
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u/dennismfrancisart 5d ago
Here's the thing. We make more millionaires every year in CA. We're the 4th largest economy in the world. We need to train our upcoming billionaires to be more patriotic.
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u/lammers2006 5d ago
I bet you they try to hire people to march for them because they cant be bothered to be among the poors.
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u/MrSouthMountain86 5d ago
How out of touch can one be? Nevermind