January 2026
Welcome to The Billionaire Bulletin, brought to you by Tax the Greedy Billionaires and the Extreme Wealth Center. Each month, we explore how extreme concentrations of wealth are distorting our economy and eroding our democracy. Join our mailing list to get this newsletter in your inbox every month.
EMPTY BILLIONAIRE THREATS IN CALIFORNIA
California voters may soon decide on a groundbreaking ballot measure: a 5% one-time tax on net worth exceeding $1 billion to fund healthcare for lower-income Americans.
The tax is necessary to fill a massive funding hole at the state level created by the Trump-GOP mega-law (“OBBBA”) enacted last summer, which cut federal healthcare and safety-net programs and dumped additional costs onto states while delivering new tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. The one-time levy on billionaires’ net worth would generate tens of billions to stabilize Medi-Cal and other essential services that millions of Californians rely on. It asks a tiny group—approximately 200 ultra-wealthy individuals—who have benefited enormously from California’s economy to help protect the public institutions that made that prosperity possible.
Predictably, a handful of those ultra-wealthy voices are threatening to flee the state, claiming that the tax will erode innovation, repel wealthy residents and lead to economic catastrophe.
But here’s what the evidence actually shows: the ultra-wealthy don’t leave when taxes go up. (Nor do entrepreneurs stop building companies out of fear that they would have to pay a one-time tax should they become billionaires.)
Stanford sociologist Cristobal Young analyzed 13 years of IRS data and found that just 2.4% of millionaires relocate annually—lower than the general population. Of those who do move, only 0.3% choose lower-tax states. Recent data confirms this pattern: After Massachusetts and Washington enacted progressive taxes on the wealthy, their millionaire populations grew by 38.6% and 46.9% respectively, with their collective wealth increasing by over $1.3 trillion between 2022 and 2024.
California has its own proof. After voters approved Proposition 30 in 2012—raising taxes on high earners—dire predictions of economic collapse proved wildly wrong. The state generated $7-8 billion annually in new revenue and transformed a $27 billion deficit into a $21 billion surplus by 2019. The wealthy didn’t flee; California’s economy flourished.
Even some billionaires get it. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, facing a potential 10-figure tax bill from the current proposal, dismissed the hysteria: “I’m perfectly fine with it. It never crossed my mind once.” His reason? “We work in Silicon Valley because that’s where the talent pool is.”
The reality is simple: wealthy people stay because they value what high-tax places provide—quality education, public safety, world-class cultural institutions, and economic stability from robust public investment. Their success is tied to the places that made them successful.
This isn’t just about one state—it’s about whether lawmakers have the courage to side with the overwhelming majority of Americans who want to tax extreme wealth and invest in our shared prosperity. UC Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman notes a practical reality: billionaires who hadn’t established residency elsewhere by January 1 have already missed their window to avoid this tax by relocating.
The real question isn’t whether billionaires will leave. It’s whether we’ll finally make them pay their fair share.
HARD TRUTH
The top 0.001% of the world’s population control three times as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity, according to the 2026 World Inequality Report. To put that into perspective, that means that around 56,000 people are sitting on three times as much wealth as 2.8 billion adults. Those 56,000 people are also seeing their wealth grow at a faster rate, further exacerbating this widening chasm of inequality. The world’s 500 richest people alone saw a record $2.2 trillion increase in their collective wealth in 2025, bringing their combined net worth to $11.9 trillion.
BILLIONAIRE BLIGHT OF THE MONTH
Elon Musk kicked off the new year with a new disgusting controversy as X users started using Grok’s “Edit Image” button to sexualize images of women and minors. One researcher found that Grok generated around 6,700 sexually suggestive images per hour over a 24-hour period. As the social media platform was flooded with the nonconsensual imagery, Musk merely laughed it off with memes. X has received warnings from child safety groups that Grok’s image generator was primed for this type of abuse but failed to install the necessary safeguards to prevent it.
Amid the outcry, X’s solution was to move image editing behind a paywall, a total failure to address the root of the issue with their software. Rather than limit Grok’s ability to create nonconsensual deepfakes and undressing images, Musk and his team opted to monetize this form of sexual abuse.
NEWSWORTHY NUGGETS
- “Tech Billionaires Threaten to Flee California—Again” – The Nerd Reich
- “The ‘Donroe Doctrine’ Is Literally a Scam” – Aaron Regunberg
- “Richest 15 U.S. centi-billionaires see wealth surge 33 percent to $3.2 trillion” – Institute For Policy Studies
- “Billionaires emit more carbon pollution in 90 minutes than the average person does in a lifetime” – COURIER Newsroom Video Report
- “Republican Megabill Tax Provisions Are Skewed to the Rich, Fail to Deliver for Families, and Are Fiscally Irresponsible” – Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- “For Many Families, Trump-GOP Healthcare Premium Hikes Wipe Out Potential Tax Cuts” – Americans For Tax Fairness
WHAT IS THE BILLIONAIRE BULLETIN?
This monthly newsletter aims to highlight the many ways in which extreme wealth concentration threatens our economy, democracy, climate, and more. In each issue, we tackle timely topics by pulling back the curtain and exposing how billionaires are rigging the system against ordinary Americans.
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