From Rock to Tech, Talent Flees Taxes |
California Democrats should listen to The Rolling Stones.
The band famously fled England in the 1970s, heading into tax exile in the south of France.
Mick Jagger and his mates weren’t alone—a generation of rock royalty abandoned the U.K. because of its steep taxes: David Bowie opted for Switzerland; Rod Stewart went to California.
“We left England because we’d be paying 98 cents on the dollar. We left, and they lost out. No taxes at all,” Stones guitarist Keith Richards recalled to Fortune.
Progressives are now transforming California into what Britain was before Margaret Thatcher—and it’s not celebrities who are leaving, but the billionaires who drive Silicon Valley’s economy, and therefore the state’s.
The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act ballot measure is a recipe for reverse alchemy, turning the Golden State into lead.
California’s descending into a vicious spiral all too familiar from other blue states and cities, whenever they try to make up for revenue lost as billionaires and businesses flee by raising taxes ever higher.
But this is no ordinary tax on incremental gains—the Billionaire Tax is straight-up confiscation, a one-time seizure of 5% of a taxpayer’s assets.
The law would hit anyone with $1 billion or more, which is admittedly a........