Derik Kaufman says the ultrawealthy are getting a bad shake and a proposed tax on them is bad policy, so he’s organizing a rally to support them
He’s actually planning to hold a March for Billionaires in San Francisco this weekend. And he says he’s doing so because he’s opposed to a proposed state tax on billionaires and, more simply, because he feels as if the billionaire class has been unfairly vilified.
Sure, Kauffman acknowledged, some billionaires have done bad things, or things he opposes. But most made their money by providing innovations or products that benefit society at large, not to mention their other contributions in the form of their philanthropy and the taxes they pay, he said. The point of the event is to “change the sentiment on this to recognize that billionaires have done a lot for us and communicate that we’re glad they’re here,” Kauffman said. It’s scheduled to start Saturday at 11 a.m. at Alta Plaza Park in Pacific Heights and will proceed to Civic Center for a 12:30 p.m. rally.“Is this parody?” one BlueSky user asked in response to a thread posted by the “March for Billionaires” account on the social network after Kauffman announced the event there last weekend. “I keep changing my mind between ‘this is deep satire’ and ‘this is real,’” Mike Masnick, an editor with the tech news outlet Techdirt, wrote in his own BlueSky post. “I *think* it's satire. But, dammit, I'm just not sure ...” “I thought it was a joke, to be honest,” Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, told The Examiner. Kauffman said he understands the skepticism. But via the March for Billionaires accounts on BlueSky and X and in conversations with The Examiner, he has repeatedly professed to be sincere. He told The Examiner he’s neither a billionaire defending his own interests, nor just acting as a front for the ultrarich. Last year, Kauffman founded an artificial-intelligence startup called RunRL that took part in Y Combinator’s accelerator program. He recently left the company, he said. Kauffman said he’s not in contact with any billionaires or getting any funding from them, nor are there any other groups involved with the event. Instead, he’s footing the cost of the March for Billionaires website himself and is the principal organizer of and publicist for it, he said. Kauffman, who said he aspires to be a billionaire — but doesn’t expect to ever become one — said he was spurred to put on the event by the proposed wealth tax. That labor-union-backed proposal, which comes in the form of an initiative for which supporters are currently gathering signatures, would levy a one-time 5% imposition on the worldwide wealth of California billionaires. Under the proposal, those owing the tax could pay it as one lump sum or pay an annual deferral charge of 7.5% to spread the payment over five years. As of the beginning of this year, there were 214 people in that wealth class in the state, according to Americans for Tax Fairness, a liberal advocacy group, based on Forbes data. Among those who are San Francisco residents are Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and venture capitalist Michael Moritz. The state Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated the tax would result in a temporary windfall of tens of billions of dollars spread over several years, but could also result in an ongoing drop in income-tax revenue if billionaires respond to it by moving out of state. That danger — that the tax will spur the ultra-wealthy to move, taking their income taxes with them — has been echoed by critics of the proposal, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Daniel Lurie and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. Kauffman shares that concern and said he’s also worried the proposal will force startup founders such as himself to sell shares in their companies, even if the businesses aren’t public yet and there’s no established market for their shares. Additionally, he fears a provision in the proposal that could value shares with extra voting rights based on the voting control they convey rather than how much they are actually worth. Those potential consequences of the tax could make it more difficult for founders to keep control of their companies, he said. But he said he’s also worried that the general negative climate toward billionaires could drive them out of the state along with their innovations and jobs. He said he wants, through the march, to show them their contributions are appreciated. “These are sort of my honest beliefs,” Kauffman said. “I know it’s unconventional. Billionaires are never going to do something like this.” That acknowledgement gets at what might seem to many people discordant about the march, political analysts told The Examiner. Members of both political parties in the U.S. routinely take shots at society’s elites, frequently including billionaires, according to UC Berkeley political-science professor Omar Wasow. Even President Donald Trump, whose policies have frequently benefited the wealthy, has attacked certain members of the group, including George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg.“It’s unusual for anybody to stand up for the best off in our society,” he said.Additionally, it’s not how politics usually works, the political analysts said. The wealthy typically attempt to influence politics and the public through means such as political donations, lobbying, advertising or via media outlets they buy or control, said Wasow and Patrick Murphy, a professor of public affairs at the University of San Francisco. By contrast, unions, consumers and everyday people have long tried to counter that influence through mass mobilization — protest movements, demonstrations, door-to-door campaigns and the like, they said. Murphy said that attempting to use mass mobilization to support monied interests wouldn’t seem to make a lot of sense. Ex // Top Stories Word on the Street: When the Budweiser Clydesdales met a Waymo San Francisco isn’t real. This Bay Area nonprofit trains the next generation of SF chefs For the past five years, Sprouts has taught culinary skills and life lessons to at-risk young adults through hands-on internships New SF exhibit explores modern history of human sexuality "Desire on the Couch," on view at the California Institute of Integral Studies, was curated in partnership with the Kinsey Institute It’s “an unusual application of what we think of as the laws of political physics. It just kind of doesn’t work that way,” he said. “It’s a gravity-defying effort.”Kaufman acknowledged that he’s trying to be provocative — both with the name of the event and the fact that he’s starting the march in Alta Plaza Park. Pacific Heights is home to several billionaires. Due to that, the park was the site of the “People over Billionaires” protest in November, he noted. Even so, Kauffman said he doesn’t expect a huge turnout — maybe a few dozen people. He doesn’t have a permit to hold an event at the park or to close off the streets for a march between there and Civic Center. Although he applied to hold a demonstration on the steps of City Hall, he was denied because there was already an event scheduled that day, said Samantha Carol, the building’s events director. The lack of permits is due to the short timeline for planning the event, he said — but he said he didn’t think he’ll need them. Instead of marching down the street, for example, he’s planning to lead people to Civic Center over the sidewalks between there and the park, he said.Even if they can’t use the City Hall steps, “there are other spaces we can use in Civic Center plaza without a permit,” he said. Daniel Montes, a spokesperson with the Recreation and Park department, told The Examiner in an email that “ with 50 or more people would require a permit, according to the park code’s section 7.03 b.”“I might go to this to support! Anybody else going? @ProBillionaires,” wrote X user Aella. Kauffman said he reached out to his fellow Y Combinator founders about it. He said that the idea got a mixed reaction, but he expects at least some to attend the event. In an email, Rufus Jeffris, spokesman for the Bay Area Council, a business-backed policy and lobbying group, echoed the sentiments behind the march. “We’re fine to celebrate billionaires and the immense contributions they make to our economy and state in the form of jobs, investment and taxes,” Jeffris said. “But we really see this as celebrating the important role of business, from the boot-strapping startup founder to our largest employers, more broadly in supporting and moving California forward.” But the idea of the march had plenty of detractors — and if the response on social media is any indication, far more than the supporters.“Unbelievably pathetic,” said another. The number of billionaires and the wealth they hold has soared in recent years thanks to factors such as inheritance, tax policies that have reduced rates on and benefit the ultrawealthy, the decline of unions, the monopolization or concentrated control of large and growing parts of the economy by a small number of companies, and a soaring stock market that was stoked for years by low interest rates. Even as the number of billionaires has grown, the perception of the ultrawealthy by much of the public has soured amid the economic struggles experienced by many Americans, according to numerous polls. The ties many of the wealthy — including Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson — had to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein likely haven’t helped the class’ public image. Nor have the mass layoffs by billionaire-controlled tech and other companies, Gonzalez said. In recent weeks, Zuckerberg’s Meta, and Bezos’ Amazon and The Washington Post each slashed hundreds or even thousands of jobs. Gonzalez also pointed to the steps Tesla CEO Elon Musk took last year under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to slash or eliminate government agencies and cut workers, moves that have already led to an estimated hundreds of thousands of deaths, according to the Center for Global Development. Millions more are expected, according to a recent study in The Lancet. Tech billionaires in particular are trying to replace people with AI and other automated systems, and at least one AI startup is suggesting in billboards that humans are disposable, Gonzalez said. “If want to be respected more for the great humanity that they’re doing, maybe we should understand their humanity better, because it doesn’t really seem that when it comes to working people that there’s much there,” she said. Billionaires as a group see their wealth grow by 7.5% a year, said Brian Galle, a professor of law at UC Berkeley who helped write the wealth tax proposal. By contrast, millionaires only see their wealth grow about 2%-3% annually, he said. The wealth tax would essentially cut the growth of billionaire wealth by one percentage point per year over five years, Galle said. Even with it, their wealth would still be growing about two to three times faster than that of millionaires, he said. The reduction in billionaire wealth growth might be “worth somebody’s time to march against,” Galle said, “but for me, it’s something I would march in favor of.” If you have a tip about tech, startups or the venture industry, contact Troy Wolverton at twolverton@sfexaminer.com or via text or Signal at 515-5594.
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