What’s the Matter with Billionaires? How America’s wealthiest sabotage their own prosperity (and ours) to avoid paying taxes

This post is silly.

First, the fundamental premise isn’t even right. [Billionaires broke for Harris](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-harris-campaign-donations-billionaires-b2641096.html) in excess of the general population. Obviously there are high profile Republican billionaires, but billionaires as a class didn’t tilt Republican.

Second, every conceivable theory of politics would suggest billionaires would oppose the Harris tax on unrealized gains. It was a massive and hare-brained expansion of their tax liability. It’s not ‘irrational’ for them to avoid it. Virtually every country taxes capital gains on disposition for a reason.

I do think it’s a bit dispiriting and worth considering why certain billionaires and mega corporations seem less willing to oppose Trump this time. Eg., Bezos, Disney… But this article is poorly premised.

On a broader cultural note, one of the interesting ideas to come out of *Succession* was that the ultra-rich don’t really care about money. All of the Roy kids have so much money they don’t care if their plans make or lose money. It contrasts to the dominant left/progressive understanding of billionaires as ruthless wealth maximizers. It’s almost *more* disturbing though to see people like Elon or Andressen who seem to genuinely believe there’s a ‘woke virus’ and are willing to burn piles of cash stomping it out.