{"id":2548,"date":"2026-06-19T19:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2548"},"modified":"2026-06-19T19:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T19:40:32","slug":"lee-i-represent-silicon-valley-heres-why-i-support-taxing-its-billionaires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2548","title":{"rendered":"Lee: I represent Silicon Valley. Here’s why I support taxing its billionaires."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Meta posted $56.31 billion in first-quarter revenue, beat every analyst estimate on Wall Street and is coming off a record-breaking 2025 that brought in $201 billion. And just two weeks ago, it began laying off 10% of its employees \u2014 roughly 8,000 workers, many of them Californians in my district.<\/p>\n

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Mark Zuckerberg, whose personal net worth has climbed past $228 billion, told his own employees the cuts were needed to free up cash for $145 billion in AI infrastructure spending this year. In other words, thousands of California families are losing their paychecks so that one of the richest men in the state can build the machines designed to replace the next 8,000 workers \u2014 and get even richer as a result!<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the part that should make every Californian\u2019s blood boil: According to audio of an internal Meta meeting leaked to More Perfect Union, Zuckerberg told employees that the company is training its AI models by tracking how its own workers use their computers. \u201cIf we\u2019re trying to teach the models coding,\u201d Zuckerberg explained, \u201cthen having people internally build tools or solve tasks that help teach the model how to code, we think is going to dramatically increase our model\u2019s coding ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, Meta employees are being surveilled so that the AI replacing them learns to do their jobs better. Their final contribution to the company is to train the thing that makes them disposable.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re witnessing \u2014 in real time \u2014 is a small class of billionaires extracting every last ounce of value from workers while pushing them out the door. What we need is a nationwide wealth tax to decrease the concentration of money and power at the top that allows them to do it. A wealth tax could finance affordable housing, fund health care and education programs and build up new infrastructure as a start \u2014 we just need leaders willing to redirect that wealth back into the communities that generated it, not hand the bag to billionaires hoarding it.<\/p>\n

But we can\u2019t wait for that. We need to start with California\u2019s 2026 \u201cBillionaire Tax Act,\u201d which will be on the ballot in November. After all, California knows a lot about extreme wealth. More billionaires live here than in any other state, and many of the tech firms openly engineering a future without workers are headquartered or built here. You might not have been affected by this round of layoffs, but the harms of extreme wealth concentration are coming for all of us.<\/p>\n

In my own district, constituents are facing a perfect storm. Tech layoffs are already hitting families in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, and private equity firms buying up affordable housing will only make things worse. We\u2019ve seen how investor-controlled housing locks buyers out of the market and drives up rent. Plus, tech leaders are openly planning a future where AI eliminates millions more in California jobs. And private equity rollups of California hospitals and physician practices have set us on a path to experience what has happened elsewhere in the country \u2014 hospital closures, staffing cuts and surprise billing.<\/p>\n

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So whether you\u2019re a computer engineer now without a job or a young teacher living in my district, the wealth extraction happening at Meta is reshaping who can afford to live in California.<\/p>\n

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Voters get it. Reducing billionaire power is overwhelmingly popular with California voters across the political spectrum. According to a recent conducted by Impact Research, 64% of California voters support candidates who will prioritize raising taxes on billionaires, compared to just 15% who oppose candidates that will tax billionaires more. That\u2019s a 49-point advantage.<\/p>\n

And while critics claim that November\u2019s billionaire tax will drive capital out of our state, that argument doesn\u2019t hold up to reality. Billionaires and their companies stay in California because of Silicon Valley, our infrastructure and our labor \u2014 not because taxes are low. This also isn\u2019t about punishing the wealthy or reducing competition or eliminating our state\u2019s other advantages. It\u2019s about offsetting the looming federal cuts to California health care. Ninety percent of the revenue generated will go to preventing the system\u2019s collapse \u2014 a massive investment that would help Silicon Valley thrive.<\/p>\n

We cannot be the state that quietly accepts the largest concentration of private wealth in American history, and we cannot be the state where workers are surveilled into training their own replacements. California helped build the modern progressive movement, and it must be a leader in fighting against wealth inequality too.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Alex Lee represents California \u2018s 24th District, which spans portions of Alameda and Santa Clara counties, including Fremont, Newark, Milpitas and northern San Jose.<\/em><\/p>\n

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