Matthew Hennessey, in the WSJ’s “Free Expressions“, writes, I hope you didn’t think a little thing like democracy would stop the socialists. Last week, voters in California rejected a union-backed wealth tax that would have imposed a 5% levy on residents worth more than $1 billion. The measure failed by 52.6% to 47.4%.

Don’t imagine for a second that’ll be the end of it.

The push for a wealth tax was “dealt a big blow” in California, but tax-hungry types in the Empire State “aren’t feeling disheartened. In fact, they’re more bullish than ever.”
What’s this “more bullish than ever”? Do they not care what voters want when they go to the polls?

Maybe the people don’t actually know what’s good for them. Did you ever think of that? Maybe what’s good for the people should be decided not by the people but by French economists.

“My view is that it’s still a positive, on net, for the agenda just because it attracted so much interest,” said Emmanuel Saez, a University of California, Berkeley, economist who helped draft Prop. 40.

Gabriel Zucman, also an economist and French, thundered that opponents of the wealth tax “will lose this war.”

The French certainly know something about losing wars., writes Hennessey. But, come come, no need for all that.

Messrs. Saez and Zucman practice a form of economics that is immune to evidence and therefore uncritiquable. If they say a wealth tax will raise revenue without having any appreciable effect on investment, innovation, or growth, it will. If they say a wealth tax will turn the sky the color of pink lemonade, it will do that, too.

And Along Comes Bernie

Jumping on X, Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered some “bad news” to the “oligarchs” after Prop. 40 went down. He isn’t an oldies station, but he loves to play the hits. “Your victory is fleeting. We will pass a federal billionaire wealth tax & end your greed.”

What then do you say about Bernie’s greed?

What about his bottomless appetite for confiscation and redistribution? Who will end that?

That’s a lot of revenue touching down at Donald J. Trump International Airport in West Palm Beach. A smart state run by sensible people would take the defeat of the wealth tax as a sign to declare victory and move on. But this is California, the land of beautiful dreamers. Socialists know if they can take it there, they can take it anywhere.