These Politicians Want To Tax the Rich. But Why Do They Seem To Despise Them? |
Billionaires
These Politicians Want To Tax the Rich. But Why Do They Seem To Despise Them?
Are Jeff Bezos and other billionaires really evil just because they're wealthy?
Billy Binion | 5.15.2026 5:33 PM
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
Left to right: Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Picture Alliance/Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire/Newscom/Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA/Newscom/Nathan Posner/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/Newscom)
Our politics have been analogized to Veep. A more apt comparison some days is that we are living in a cartoon. Every good cartoon needs a supervillain or three. Our supervillains created millions of jobs, made goods cheaper and far easier to obtain, and revolutionized access to information, among other terrible, terrible things.
I am referring to billionaires. Reasonable people will debate, and disagree on, the best way to sketch out the tax code. Protestations to "tax the rich" have long been central to progressive politics. But last week's Met Gala was a reminder that there is something else undergirding those calls: what seems like legitimate hatred or, at a minimum, disgust. Why?
The Met Gala, of course, is a convenient backdrop for this kind of criticism: a ludicrous event where........