A few weeks in the past, phrase started to unfold round San Francisco that any person was organizing a “March for Billionaires.” A thriller organizer had posted on social media that “billionaires get a nasty rap,” and shortly, some flyers appeared across the metropolis. A web site offered a time and rendezvous level; it additionally celebrated the societal contributions of Jeff Bezos and Taylor Swift, exhorting folks to “choose people, not lessons.” The message gave the impression to be: Not all billionaires.
Initially, everyone I requested within the metropolis was sure that this was satire, maybe the workings of Sacha Baron Cohen or a stunt by union activists; in spite of everything, the web site additionally lauds the worth created by James Dyson, Roger Federer, and the CEO of Chobani (for having “popularized Greek yogurt”). I used to be reminded of how, a number of years in the past, the faux-conspiracists of the Birds Aren’t Actual motion rallied outdoors Twitter’s headquarters to critique harmful social-media rabbit holes.
Nonetheless, in a metropolis the place AI founders are giddy about automating complete industries and promoting digital “mates,” and in a state that’s weighing a brand new and aggressive tax for its wealthiest residents, I wasn’t so positive. The March for Billionaires web site appeared to have completely obscured the possession of its area, so I contacted one of many march’s social-media accounts final week and shortly obtained a response: The organizer would meet me for espresso.
His title is Derik Kauffman, and he appeared very critical. The protest was the primary that Kauffman, a 26-year-old AI-start-up founder, had organized. “I’m somebody who stands up for what I consider in,” he informed me over espresso (properly, he ordered a inexperienced juice). “Even when that’s unpopular.” For an hour, as I did my finest to prod Kauffman’s sincerity, he didn’t flinch. He isn’t in opposition to social welfare, agreed that poverty is unhealthy, and at one level launched into an in depth dialogue of tax loopholes exploited by the ultrarich. Nonetheless, though not a billionaire himself, Kauffman is a fanboy. He mentioned that he’d organized the march with each a particular purpose—opposing the wealth tax on billionaires in California proposed by a significant health-care employees’ union—and a broader one: to unfold the phrase that billionaires are finally mates of the working class. His considering was contradictory at occasions however intensive; if this was a hoax, the execution was fairly good.
And so, on Saturday, a gaggle of like-minded dissidents gathered with him in Pacific Heights, residence to San Francisco’s “Billionaires’ Row,” to lend the nation’s 924 wealthiest folks their help. The occasion topped out, by my depend, at 18 pro-billionaire attendees, who hoisted indicators with slogans resembling Tip Your Landlord and Property Rights Are Human Rights. Not less than 15 counterprotesters confirmed up as properly, making every part extra complicated as a result of they have been parodying the thought of supporting billionaires. Some wore full fits or elaborate clothes and held Trillionaires for Trump indicators; others provided pulled-pork sandwiches labeled Musk on the Guillotine and chanted “Eat the poor.” Reporters and photographers outnumbered each teams handily.
The proposed “billionaire tax” is a onetime tax on billionaires to make up for federal cuts to California’s health-care price range. Fears concerning the tax rose after The Wall Road Journal reported that Sergey Brin and Larry Web page, the co-founders of Google, have been contemplating leaving the state. The specter of this or any future billionaire tax, Kauffman mentioned, may injury the entrepreneurship that makes California nice. (An eclectic set of rich and influential figures within the state, together with California Governor Gavin Newsom, the White Home AI adviser David Sacks, and the enterprise capitalist Peter Thiel, oppose the initiative.)
Past pushing again in opposition to any specific coverage, the march was additionally taking an ethical stand. “Billionaires are sometimes vilified,” Pablo, one of many demonstrators, informed me. “When it comes to folks appreciating them or simply not hating them, they’re most likely among the many worst off in the entire world.” One other, Flo, prompt to me that anti-billionaire sentiment is “rising in left circles” and must be resisted. Not one of the pro-billionaire marchers I spoke with aside from Kauffman would inform me their surname.
There may be, after all, reality to the assertion that billionaires are reviled. A latest Harris Ballot survey discovered that just about three-quarters of Individuals consider that billionaires are too celebrated; greater than half consider that billionaires are a risk to democracy. (The march’s timing on the heels of the discharge of the most recent batch of Epstein recordsdata, which characteristic quite a lot of billionaires, is difficult to disregard.) Because the procession walked towards Metropolis Corridor, alongside streets recognized for upper-end buying and eating, pedestrians, bikers, drivers, and other people seated outdoors for brunch booed, jeered, and honked; one retailer proprietor got here out, filmed the march, and known as its members “billionaire brownnosers.” Matt, one in every of two folks holding the big banner on the entrance of the procession (Billionaires Construct Prosperity), informed me that he was marching partially as a result of “I attempt to make a behavior of doing one brave factor a day.”
Maybe now is an effective time for some context: The highest 0.1 % of Individuals management 14.4 % of the nation’s wealth, practically six occasions that of the underside 50 %. The 400 wealthiest people pay a smaller portion of their revenue in taxes than the typical American. The disparity is much more pronounced in Silicon Valley, the place 9 households management 15 % of the area’s wealth and the highest 0.1 % management 71 % of its wealth, in response to an evaluation from San José State College. The identical Harris Ballot survey that captured Individuals’ hostility towards billionaires additionally discovered that 60 % of respondents needed to grow to be billionaires themselves.
Any try at a debate with Kauffman or the opposite pro-billionaire demonstrators—to counsel that immense wealth inequality is dangerous and that the market doesn’t, by itself, enable many Individuals to get by, not to mention thrive—all the time boiled right down to the identical, unshakable perception: Billionaires are the engine of the U.S. economic system, and since folks pay for items on Amazon and use Google Search, billionaires’ fortunes are deserved. If Amazon causes brick-and-mortar shops to shut, it’s just because these shops “weren’t offering as a lot” worth to shoppers, Mike, a protester, informed me. By no means thoughts the low wages, acquisition of opponents, worth manipulation, and different practices many billionaires use to remain on prime.
For all of the spectacle, the tensions between the pro- and faux-billionaires have been sharp and reflective of actual animosity. As the principle procession chanted “Property rights are human rights,” Vincent Gargiulo, a counterprotester wearing a white mock-billionaire go well with, started shouting “Fuck poor folks.” Issues briefly escalated as a demonstrator confronted Gargiulo for being “not honest.” He grabbed and snapped her pro-billionaire signal. Then Kauffman approached and threatened to name the police except Gargiulo left. One other pro-billionaire demonstrator ultimately snatched the signal again. “I’m offended that there’s a march to help people who find themselves creating wealth that I’ll by no means see in my complete life,” Gargiulo informed me after I requested why he had damaged character. The following chant in protection of the rich was “Finish the category conflict!”
Because the march progressed, one thing odd started to occur between the countervailing messages. The 2 sides—representing, I suppose, the 0.01 % and the remainder of us, respectively—virtually melded collectively. Kauffman blared, “Thanks, California billionaires” by way of his megaphone, and the counterprotesters, carrying crowns, shouted again, “You’re welcome.” As they approached Metropolis Corridor, the place the group would ship some speeches, the pro-billionaire rally cheered, “Abolish public land” whereas the counterprotesters jeered, “Tip your landlord,” a slogan that was itself on one of many pro-billionaire posters. At one level, either side chanted “Poverty shouldn’t exist” in unison—the marchers suggesting that billionaires will alleviate poverty, the counterprotesters both attempting to reclaim the assertion or just taking part in into its absurdity.
It was, in a approach, a becoming mix. Wealth disparities and unaffordability are amongst a number of crises that tech corporations are concurrently contributing to and promoting options for. (Each pro-billionaire attendee I spoke with described themselves as in tech or “tech adjoining” fields.) Silicon Valley is dizzyingly self-contradictory. High CEOs have aligned themselves with a xenophobic White Home whereas relying closely on an immigrant workforce. AI corporations supply merchandise that declare to enhance the economic system by automating giant swaths of it. Billboards round San Francisco promote a product that conducts audits earlier than your AI girlfriend breaks up with you; founders are earnest about curing dying. In the meantime, Elon Musk and different tech leaders submit like teenage boys whereas making society-altering selections. The whole lot is ironic, and nothing is.
Because the march neared its vacation spot, we handed by an Amazon supply driver standing outdoors his van. He was filming the procession, and I approached to ask what he considered all of it. His English was restricted, and he appeared a bit confused by what was occurring at first, saying that he supported the march—as in, protesting normally. I defined that the march was in help of the likes of Bezos and Musk. Did he help billionaires? “No, no,” he clarified. “All people has to get more cash. All people, not just one particular person.”
