“You made all your money in California, you ungrateful piece of shit. We deserve the taxes from you.”
That’s not some random Twitter communist. That’s Kara Swisher—wealthy progressive journalist, childless, pro-migration—telling billionaires exactly what California’s left has planned for them.
Pay up. Or else.
The “or else” is a ballot initiative backed by a healthcare workers’ union that wants to fund benefits for illegal immigrants. And after decades of flooding California with migrants who now vote, progressives finally have the numbers to make it happen.
The Shakedown
Rep. Ro Khanna is running for president in 2028. His pitch? Vote for my wealth tax or face populist revolution.
No, really. He said it out loud.
Khanna invoked the French Revolution of 1848 and Russia in 1917. His argument: if billionaires don’t fork over their cash, poor people—”including many migrants welcomed by the billionaires”—will rise up against the investor class.
Nice tech empire you’ve got there. Shame if something happened to it.
He’s calling it “economic patriotism.” It’s extortion with a campaign slogan.
The Migrant Math
Here’s the part nobody wants to say clearly: this is only possible because of mass migration.
California’s progressive politicians spent decades encouraging illegal immigration. They gave illegal migrants taxpayer-funded healthcare. They created sanctuary cities. They made citizenship easier and voting more accessible.
Now those naturalized migrants are a voting bloc. A big one. Big enough to pass ballot initiatives that strip wealth from the people who built Silicon Valley.
The healthcare workers’ union pushing this tax has the membership and the money because of that migration. Every wave of new arrivals expanded their base. Every amnesty added voters.
This was always the endgame. Import voters, then vote yourself other people’s money.
Billionaires Running Scared
The tech elite is panicking, and it’s honestly a little pathetic to watch.
DoorDash founder Andy Fang—who got rich using illegal immigrant labor for cheap deliveries—now says “stupid wealth tax proposals like this make it irresponsible for me not to plan leaving the state.”
The irony could choke a horse. These people funded pro-migration causes for years. They backed politicians who opened the borders. They virtue-signaled about diversity while undercutting American workers.
Now the coalition they helped build is coming for their wallets.
Investor Chamath Palihapitiya warned that “the blast radius of healthcare for illegal aliens will be the end of Silicon Valley.” He’s probably right. He’s also spent years as part of the same Silicon Valley culture that treated mass migration as an unqualified good.
You wanted cheap labor and woke credentials. Congratulations—here’s the bill.
The Vance Alternative
While Khanna threatens revolution, JD Vance is making a different pitch to billionaires: invest in American workers, support lower migration, and we’ll have your back.
Vance called cheap foreign labor “a drug that too many American firms got addicted to.” His vision is high wages, high productivity, and an economy that works for citizens first.
It’s not popular in Silicon Valley boardrooms. But it’s looking increasingly attractive compared to “give us your money or face the guillotine.”
Some billionaires are waking up. David Sacks—now advising Trump—watched Khanna’s play and said the quiet part loud: “Why is it politically advantageous for him to support asset seizures? Because that’s the direction of travel in the Democrat Party.”
Bingo.
The Courts Won’t Save Them
Billionaires are already talking lawsuits. The tax is retroactive, which may be unconstitutional. Legal challenges will tie things up for years.
But that’s a rearguard action, not a victory. Even if courts block this specific initiative, the political math doesn’t change. The voters are there. The resentment is real. Another ballot will follow, then another.
California’s billionaire class spent decades building a progressive coalition that despises them. They funded their own executioners, one donation at a time.
Now they’re shocked—shocked!—that the leopards want to eat their faces.
The revolution Khanna’s promising? They paid for it themselves.