California Reparations For Descendants Of US Slaves -- January 31, 2023

The effort continues to advance. 

In a not-ready-for-prime-time reply to a reader: 

The California reparations issue will be interesting to follow.

My hunch: the Asians will be most upset.

Asians, as a group, are probably the most successful (non-Hollywood) ethnic group. They, along with the Jewish population (Hollywood) will fund this $1 million to every slave descendant.

But having said that, it's a huge boon to the California economy and it very likely could happen.

All other efforts to tax wealth (as opposed to income) have failed. This might be one way California gets it done. It won't be an income tax, and they won't call it a wealth tax. They will call it a fairness fee or something that effect and financial holdings greater than $1 billion wil l be subject to a several hundred million one-time fee.

California has already figured out how to tax residents even after the residents leave the state.

Billionaires having to give up $100 million won't feel the loss (they will write part of it off on their federal tax) but the recipients (who will be highly represented in a few cities / suburbs) will make a huge difference on the local economy.

It will be fascinating to see if the Hollywood and professional athletes come out in favor of this.

If it works in California, expect to see if roll out nationwide.