(Sept 13, 2023)
At the Private and Public Sector Entity Levels. (In trillions of U.S. dollars)
PRIVATE SECTOR:
Households 121.9
Nonprofits 8.6
Noncorporate businesses 17.2
Total U.S. Private Sector 147.7
PUBLIC SECTOR:
Federal government – 21.3
State and local government 11.5
Total U.S. Public Sector – 9.8
Instrument discrepancies – 1.1
TOTAL U.S. WEALTH 136.8
(May 26, 2026)
A California ballot initiative that will be put to voters in November would tax just 5 percent of billionaires’ fortunes over five years. This trailblazing wealth tax would be a small (for the ultrawealthy) but important (for everyone else) step toward raising needed tax revenue and curbing the state’s runaway inequality.
The billionaire class in California includes roughly 250 households, a mere 0.001 percent of the state’s families. Yet its wealth now amounts to more than half of California’s entire annual economic output.
This means that if these billionaires spent all of their wealth, they could buy more than half of the goods and services produced in a year in the entire state.
(January 16, 2018)
Im Falle eines Zusammenbruchs der „S.P.D.“ würde sich sofort eine sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands gründen.
Zur Zeit steht die im Kaiserreich gegründete und in den letzten sechzehn Jahren Krieg und Euro-Kapitalismus zwölf Jahre an der Regierung befindliche Partei „S.P.D.“ bei 18,5 Prozent. Mancher wird sich nun fragen, wie das ohne die „S.P.D.“ weitergehen soll. Genau das ist ja der Punkt: gar nicht. Das ist ein Grund zur Freude, nicht zur Sorge.
Die „S.P.D.“ ist eine Fantompartei. Ihre einzige Aufgabe ist es die Berliner Republik abzuwickeln, die sie nie gewollt hat und die ihrem Auftrag „Vereinigte Staaten von Europa“ genauso im Weg steht wie alle anderen Demokratien auf dem Kontinent. Diese machen den Deutschen wieder einmal vor, wie einfach es sein kann neue Parteien zu gründen, wenn einen die alten verraten.
Das müssen die Deutschen offensichtlich einfach noch lernen. Denn Demokratie ist wie Autofahren. Wer sie nicht kann, der will sie nicht, der will sie auch nicht lernen, sondern lieber einen Verkehrsunfall.
Richard Kahn (l) and Darren Indyke (r) have rarely been photographed in public
How it Works
Paid only by Californians worth more than $1 billion—about 200 people who together hold $2 trillion in wealth, most of which will never be taxed in their lifetimes due to loopholes in state and federal tax laws.
Raises about $100 billion to replace lost federal dollars and protect essential services. Directs 90% of funds to healthcare and 10% to public K-14 education and state food assistance programs.
No new taxes on the middle class, small businesses, or homeowners.
What it does for Californians
Keeps hospital ERs, clinics, nursing homes, and home care open and staffed in every community.
Stabilizes premiums and coverage, so families can see a doctor when they need one.
Protects healthcare jobs and the middle-class economy they support.
Funds public K-14 education to keep classrooms staffed, protect programs, and ensure every child gets a quality education.
Funds state food assistance programs to keep millions of Californians from losing access to food and support school nutrition programs.
What we want is simple
Protect our fragile healthcare system from collapse so our families can get the care we need.
Billionaires doing their part to support California and contribute to the social safety nets and public infrastructure that enabled their wealth accumulation.
A state with a strong middle class where everyone can thrive.
Geldschöpfung ist, wenn Banken Geld herstellen und so mehr Geld in Umlauf bringen.
(July 7, 2025)
Here’s what really happens when you get a loan from a bank:
– The bank doesn’t go into a vault and hand you someone else’s cash.
– The bank creates new money right then and there, by typing numbers into your account.
That’s right: Most of the money in our economy didn’t exist until someone took out a loan!
(January 16, 2025)
The very richest Americans are among the biggest winners from President Joe Biden’s time in office, despite his farewell address warning of an “oligarchy” and a “tech industrial complex” that threaten US democracy.
The 100 wealthiest Americans got more than $1.5 trillion richer over the last four years, with tech tycoons including Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg leading the way, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The top 0.1% gained more than $6 trillion, Federal Reserve estimates through September show.
(Sept 13, 2023)
At the Private and Public Sector Entity Levels. (In trillions of U.S. dollars)
PRIVATE SECTOR:
Households 121.9
Nonprofits 8.6
Noncorporate businesses 17.2
Total U.S. Private Sector 147.7
PUBLIC SECTOR:
Federal government – 21.3
State and local government 11.5
Total U.S. Public Sector – 9.8
Instrument discrepancies – 1.1
TOTAL U.S. WEALTH 136.8
California Billionaire Tax Act
A statewide ballot initiative to enact an emergency tax on billionaires to save California’s healthcare system from collapse
Massive cuts to federal healthcare funding are driving California towards a healthcare collapse. The federal funding cuts will strip roughly $100 billion from California healthcare over the next five years, leading to:
Short-staffed shifts: Skeleton crews left on the front lines as 145,000 healthcare jobs disappear
Higher costs and lost coverage: Insurance premiums go up for everyone, and millions of Californians lose coverage altogether.
Facility closures and reduced services: Hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and home care will be forced to reduce services or close down.
Our solution: The California Billionaire Tax Act
(October 24, 2025)
The proposed initiative would tax the 2025 net worth of billionaires residing in California, allowing them to pay off the obligation over five years. The revenue would go into a special fund with 90% reserved for health care spending and 10% reserved for K-12 education spending.
It needs 874,641 signatures to be placed before voters on the 2026 ballot, a number that the groups are confident they can reach. Getting voters to ultimately approve the tax, however, could be a hard sell.
(January 12, 2026)
The conversations, reported here for the first time, have occurred intermittently for months as SEIU-UHW’s ballot initiative targeting billionaires migrated from the backrooms of California politics to the center of a raging debate about Silicon Valley and income inequality, sparking tech titans’ wrath and vows to move out of state.
“We’ve been at this for four months,” Newsom said in an interview with POLITICO, describing an “all-hands” effort that has included him meeting one-on-one with SEIU-UHW’s leader, Dave Regan.
A compromise does not appear imminent. A union official cast doubt on the possibility of a deal, saying the two sides do not currently have another meeting scheduled and framing a ballot fight as an inevitability.
“We didn’t lose to Donald Trump. We lost to the couch,” DNC Deputy Executive Director Libby Schneider said in an interview. “We saw our voters, many of our important voters, stay home. Obviously, that is a trend that cannot continue.”
(…)
“If we want to keep earning back the trust and support of voters, we have to listen to them,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement. “The Democratic Party is done with waiting until the last minute to engage voters — these conversations need to happen early and often.”
The documents describe preliminary discussions with international law firms to work on the case on a contingency-fee basis, meaning they would be paid only if they won.
Former officials of British intelligence service MI6 and Israel‘s Mossad expressed willingness to contribute to efforts to identify and recover the assets, according to the documents.
(November 5, 2025)
The Working Families Party is open to backing a challenger to Hochul in the 2026 Democratic primary, including Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, who is running a longshot campaign to Hochul’s left.
“We will make that decision, likely in late January or early February, shortly after we see the governor’s executive budget proposal,” Gripper said. “She’s going to have to prove to her own party why she shouldn’t be primaried.”
(June 18, 2025)
Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Hochul told Pix 11, “I don’t want to lose more people to Palm Beach“ when asked about New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s plan to raise taxes. Delgado referenced the governor’s comment when explaining his own position on taxes.
“All options should be on the table, and the notion that we wouldn’t contemplate raising taxes on the super wealthy, or that we wouldn’t contemplate making sure that larger corporations pay more into the system, to me, is the exact type of ‘maintain the status quo, do what you need to do just to maintain power’ as opposed to actually thinking about what is required,” he stated.
Hochul has raised corporate taxes, but has held the line on raising new income taxes.
(March 26, 2025)
The letter was organized by the Responsible Wealth Project in coordination with Americans for Tax Fairness and Voices for Progress, according to reports.
The group sent out a similar letter to Congress in 2022. A group of wealthy Americans also sent a letter to presidential candidates in 2020 urging them to tax the ultra-wealthy more for the benefit of most Americans.
(January 16, 2025)
The very richest Americans are among the biggest winners from President Joe Biden’s time in office, despite his farewell address warning of an “oligarchy” and a “tech industrial complex” that threaten US democracy.
The 100 wealthiest Americans got more than $1.5 trillion richer over the last four years, with tech tycoons including Elon Musk, Larry Ellison and Mark Zuckerberg leading the way, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The top 0.1% gained more than $6 trillion, Federal Reserve estimates through September show.
(Sept 13, 2023)
At the Private and Public Sector Entity Levels. (In trillions of U.S. dollars)
PRIVATE SECTOR:
Households 121.9
Nonprofits 8.6
Noncorporate businesses 17.2
Total U.S. Private Sector 147.7
PUBLIC SECTOR:
Federal government – 21.3
State and local government 11.5
Total U.S. Public Sector – 9.8
Instrument discrepancies – 1.1
TOTAL U.S. WEALTH 136.8
23 Prozent aller Befragten stimmten zudem der Aussage zu, Politiker und andere Führungspersönlichkeiten seien nur Marionetten dahinter stehender Mächte. 14 Prozent meinen der Studie zufolge sogar: „Unser Land gleicht inzwischen mehr einer Diktatur als einer Demokratie.“ In Ostdeutschland meinen das 24 Prozent der Befragten, in Westdeutschland 12 Prozent. Knapp ein Viertel der Befragten ist der Ansicht, die regierenden Parteien „betrügen das Volk“.
(October 17, 2024)
Private Haushalte
Geldvermögen insgesamt
8.814,7 (Milliarden Euro)
(…)
Nichtfinanzielle Kapitalgesellschaften
(unkonsolidiert)
Geldvermögen insgesamt
8.779,8 (Milliarden Euro)
(…)
(October 17, 2024)
Private Haushalte
Geldvermögen insgesamt
8.814,7 (Milliarden Euro)
(…)
Nichtfinanzielle Kapitalgesellschaften
(unkonsolidiert)
Geldvermögen insgesamt
8.779,8 (Milliarden Euro)
(…)
(October 17, 2024)
Das Geldvermögen der privaten Haushalte in Deutschland ist im zweiten Quartal 2024 um 136 Milliarden Euro gestiegen und betrug zum Quartalsende 8.815 Milliarden Euro.
➟ Gleiche Besteuerung von Kapital und Arbeit durch die Abschaffung der Abgeltungsteuer, damit Zinsen und Kapitalerträge nicht geringer besteuert werden als Löhne und Gehälter. Dividenden werden damit, bei Menschen, die nicht den Spitzensteuersatz zahlen, deutlich geringer besteuert als heute, weil für sie wieder das Teileinkünfteverfahren gilt, was die Dividende teilweise steuerfrei stellt. Zinsen hingegen werden wieder höher besteuert.
Die AfD sprach von einem „Schlag ins Gesicht der deutschen Sparer“. „Meint Robert Habeck ernsthaft, dass er die soziale Sicherung retten kann, indem er die private Vorsorge der Menschen erschwert?“, fragte der stellvertretende Bundessprecher Peter Boehringer.
Weniger emotional, aber in der Sache ähnlich ablehnend äußerte sich Kanzler und Kanzlerkandidat Olaf Scholz: „Ein alter Hut, das hat noch nie funktioniert“, sagte der SPD-Politiker zum Grünen-Vorschlag.
Innenministerin Nancy Faeser hatte am 13. Februar erklärt: „Diejenigen, die den Staat verhöhnen, müssen es mit einem starken Staat zu tun bekommen.“ Doch war bisher in diesem Kontext das Verhöhnen, also sich über Staat und seine Institutionen lustig machen, elementarer und nicht strafbewehrter Bestandteil der politischen und medialen Kultur der Bundesrepublik. Vor diesem Hintergrund wollten die NachDenkSeiten auf der Bundespressekonferenz wissen, was die Ministerin konkret unter „Verhöhnen des Staates“ versteht und wie sie dies jetzt verfassungskonform strafrechtlich verfolgen will.
Unser Land ist in keiner guten Verfassung. Seit Jahren wird an den Wünschen der Mehrheit vorbei regiert. Statt Leistung zu belohnen, wurde von den Fleißigen zu den oberen Zehntausend umverteilt. Statt in einen kompetenten Staat und gute öffentliche Dienste zu investieren, haben Politiker die Wünsche einflussreicher Lobbys bedient und dadurch die öffentlichen Kassen geleert. Statt Freiheit und Meinungsvielfalt zu achten, macht sich ein autoritärer Politikstil breit, der den Bürgern vorschreiben will, wie sie zu leben, zu heizen, zu denken und zu sprechen haben. Die Regierung wirkt planlos, kurzsichtig und in vielen Fragen schlicht inkompetent. Ohne einen politischen Neuanfang stehen unsere Industrie und unser Mittelstand auf dem Spiel.