The Skinny on Prop 40

If you pay attention to one thing only this election season, let it be Proposition 40. This one-time, 5% tax on the wealthiest Californians would allocate up to $100 billion towards healthcare, food assistance, and education. That’s a fraction of the riches hoarded by the Golden State’s elite. But with allies like Governor Gavin Newsom, this small yet powerful minority is opposing Prop 40 with vigor. Make no mistake, they’re genuinely threatened. Opponents added their own measures to strike down Prop 40. If Propositions 41 and 42 receive more votes, California’s billionaires get away with the social imbalances they created. When people say, “It’s important to vote local,” this is what they mean.

Start with the facts. First, a billion of anything is incomprehensible. No natural need exists for the human brain to quantify such volumes under ordinary circumstances. Prop 40, the “billionaire tax,” would levy a solitary 5% tax on Californians whose net worth meets or exceeds $1 billion. That’s about 200 California residents with unthinkable wealth that do little if anything with it but accumulate more and more. Five percent of a billion dollars is $50 million; still incomprehensible. Let’s quantify these amounts in units we understand slightly better: time. 

With a “simple” dollars-to-seconds ratio, I’m 100% 50/50 that my math skills will get us through. 1 million seconds is the equivalent of just over 11.5 days—11 days, 13 hours, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds exactly. 50 million seconds comes out to around 19 months. That’s 578 days, 17 hours, 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Now, the chasm between 1 million and 1 billion seconds is laughably vast. A billion seconds translates to 31.7 years—31 years, 8 months and 15–19 days, depending on leap years. At sixty dollars a minute, it would take you an entire generation to spend it. 

Again, that’s two hundred people in California, each with at least $1 billion to their name. I made Google do the math. That’s 6,340 years before you spend their minimum pooled net worth. With ~19 months requested of each billionaire, Prop 40 asks for just over three centuries of their 6.5 millennia-reign. 

To get a sense of which measures you support, identify their opponents and supporters. It’s fair to say whoever opposes Prop 40 is either a billionaire or friends with one. Prominent opponents besides Governor Newsom include crypto exec Chris Larsen, venture capitalist Ron Conway, and for some reason, Planned Parenthood. Among Prop 40’s supporters however are the California Democratic Party, the California Labor Federation, and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders (D). The state’s laborers, union workers, and their advocates overwhelmingly defend the measure. It’s the ultra-wealthy (and possibly the terminators of their mistress’ pregnancies?) calling for Prop 40’s destruction. 

When in doubt, follow the money. Prop 40’s loudest opponent in terms of campaign donations is “Building a Better California.” Google ironically gives them up as a 501(c)(4) committee funded by tech billionaires and Silicon Valley executives. Isn’t it strange? The elite members of “Building a Better California” will gladly drop $118,500,000 to avoid spending $50 million once. 

Vocal opposition from any politician to Prop 40 immediately raises my suspicions. I’m reminded of San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s response to a desperately needed affordable housing act, also on the ballot. Prop I would redirect funding from San Francisco’s bloated police department to address the city’s beleaguered affordable housing stock. His opposition reflects an antisocial attitude typical of leaders who would rather police the population than defend it. 

Like twin fighter jets approaching their target from either side, two countermeasures joined the ballot to shoot down Prop 40. Our job is to keep that from happening. 

Neither proposition states what it is truly meant to accomplish. That would defeat their purpose. Rather, the billionaires that financed them buried their intentions in semantics and technicalities. Propositions 41 and 42 would smuggle in parameters that threaten to disarm Prop 40. 41 would launch audits of “special statewide taxes” and avert further billionaire taxation efforts. 42 would outlaw new personal property taxes, financial assets included, and forestall any taxes that might apply retroactively. If 41 or 42 win more votes, it won’t matter if 40 passes. Their anti-regulation language would prevent Prop 40 from becoming law. 

Now’s the part where I scream, “This is all on purpose!” because it is.

The endgame of inequality in the USA is and has always been establishing a white supremacist, male-dominated oligarchy. If America’s past 500 years are any clue, it won’t stop. This effort by California’s rich to dupe the poor proves it. It also proves they need more of us to vote unwisely, clearing the path for their dystopia. Underfunded schools with overwhelmed instructors cannot close class divides, much less impart literacy skills for identifying propaganda and oppression. With national literacy at an all-time low, the trap is set. If you don’t read political language at the slant it is written, you risk voting against your own interest.