Below is my column in The Hill on the statement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that true billionaires do not exist because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. Figures such as Jeff Bezos are merely capitalist unicorns according to this new socialism mythology. The problem is that she, and other socialists and Democrats, are fast making this fable come true.
Here is the column:
This week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) came up with the best reason to tax billionaires: They do not actually exist.
On a podcast, Ocasio-Cortez declared with all the certainty of a freshman in a Smith College political science course that the notion of a self-made billionaire is simply a fantasy, because “you just can’t earn” a billion dollars. It is only the latest in a series of socialist fables that are being dressed up as economic facts.
The difference is that this fable, if told often enough, could become true.
In suggesting that true billionaires are a capitalist myth, Ocasio-Cortez is suggesting that people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really did not earn their wealth and, therefore, it is really not their money.
“There’s a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned. You can’t earn a billion dollars. You just can’t earn that. You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they’re worth, but you can’t earn that.”
In other words, you can only make a billion dollars through theft and exploitation rather than actual entrepreneurial enterprise. This statement comes as support builds for the California billionaires’ tax which, even before it has a chance to pass in November, has already cost the state trillions due to an exodus of these billionaires.
In my book, “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss common myths spread by the left to fuel economic factionalism. One common myth is that the “wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.” In truth, the top ten percent of taxpayers pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S. In the book, I also dispel the claim that most millionaires inherited their wealth or came from privileged backgrounds.
These myths are designed to make redistribution schemes more palatable. And Democrats are ramping up the “eat-the-rich” rhetoric ahead of the midterms in pushing both millionaire and billionaire taxes. Democrats from Washington to Virginia are pushing millionaire taxes, and the mere conversation has already set off a stampede of high-earning taxpayers to red states like Texas and Florida, which have no state income tax.
It was also evident in this week’s California gubernatorial debate. Candidate Katie Porter (D) said she opposes the billionaire’s tax because it would not go far enough. Porter then pressed the only billionaire in the group, Tom Steyer, who has been moving to the far left to grab voters in the wake of the departure of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) as a candidate. Steyer said that he supports the billionaire tax but would want to go even further.
Steyer has spent a fortune of his own money on this race, apparently to convince Democratic primary voters that he is some kind of red billionaire in the mold of a George Soros or Neville Roy Singham. Good luck with that — after spending roughly $150 million of his own money, Steyer is still languishing between 12 and 18 percent support.
Of course, Steyer was not asked if he believes that real billionaires such as himself exist. Yet he has already apologized for making considerable money on private prisons, including those used to hold undocumented immigrants.
Ironically, in finance, a “unicorn” is a company worth more than $1 billion dollars, a term coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee to capture the rare and almost magical status of such enterprises.
Conversely, Ocasio-Cortez’s unicorn myth is part of a general denial of economic realities that has taken hold on the left. The cost of these policies is borne by workers, who are being left to eat soundbites.
Democrats have sold voters on raising minimum wages as high as $30 per hour, even though such policies cost thousands of jobs. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bragged about blocking a merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, claiming that it would create cheaper flights and better jobs. Spirit has now been forced to close its doors, causing the loss of thousands of flights and jobs.
A rising generation of voters is eagerly devouring soundbites and promises of the “warmth of collectivism” from figures like New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. From promises of free buses to state-run grocery stores, voters are buying the same threadbare socialist schtick.
That was on display this week as socialist Seattle mayor Katie Wilson laughed when asked about the millionaires fleeing the city over rising taxes and crime. She delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!”
The last laugh, however, rests with those fleeing a city facing a projected deficit of $114 million. As Wilson faces major cuts in the city budget, she gleefully mocks those whose tax dollars the city will desperately need to close this gap if it is to maintain public services.
Ironically, Wilson and other Democrats are quickly making their myth a reality. Soon, there will be no billionaire unicorns roaming the land. Even millionaires may become scarce, as these wealthy citizens move to less hostile states with less delusional leaders.
The solution to this exodus is equally predictable. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has campaigned for a billionaire tax in his state while representing Silicon Valley, has also joined with socialist Bernie Sanders to push for a national billionaire’s tax — an effort to guarantee that there is no place to hide. This is the same approach that tanked the French economy under François Mitterrand after the wealthy fled that nation.
This is not, however, a time for economics or history. It is the time of fables. Ocasio-Cortez has thrived in the land of socialist unicorns. She can even attend the ultra-rich Met Gala wearing an expensive “Tax-the-Rich” gown.
Like her dress, it is fashionable to deny that billionaires created their wealth. It is your money for the taking. The result is that billionaires and even millionaires in states like New York may go the way of unicorns, fanciful creatures that once thrived in a land of jobs and growth.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.“
The fundamental fact is that a woman with a toilet paper degree in economics has completely no idea how capitalism works. The fundamental problem is that there are voters who selected her to represent them. Does one first eliminate the symptoms or the virus?
Most people today know as much about economics as people knew about medicine in the 1600s. Somehow courses in economics have never been required in high schools even though they are far more relevant to understanding the world we live in than say, algebra. So people believe economic fantasies today just as people believed in magic charms to cure diseases in the 1600s.
NSJ
will you ever have the courage to write about corruption in the Trump Era–or is that not important to you?
Which issues do you feel are most important to highlight?”
Are there particular events or decisions you think need deeper coverage?
If you have a list of topics you’d suggest, I’d genuinely like to see it.
Are you referring to specific years, agencies, or individuals?
I sincerely want to understand your viewpoint better — what stands out to you?”
Thou Shalt Not Covet
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness
Thou Shalt Not Steal
There are monopolies. Thou shalt not monopolize.
That’s why we have antitrust laws. They tend to work.
Commies hate this one trick: You absolutely can earn a billion dollars!
Look guys, it’s true, “the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes.”
They pay the vast majority of taxes in the U.S, much more than their fair share.
Progressive taxation and the so-called “wealth tax” violate the Equal Protection Clause.
AOC’s first act upon attaining public office was to drive Amazon out of her district. They planned to build a distribution center in her district creating 1000s of good paying jobs with generous benefits. She deprived her constituents of those jobs and the bright futures that came with them. Jeff Bezos started Amazon by selling books on the internet out of his garage. Today I can order virtually anything and expect delivery to my door within 48 hours. Now he is investing his wealth to carry man beyond this planet. We are living in a scientific, technological , renaissance that will usher in a new age for all of humankind. AOC and her ilk are fighting against that future to return us to a totalitarian world of deprivation and gulags.
AOC drives out Amazon and thousands of jobs.
Mamdani drives out Ken Griffin and thousands of jobs.
Katie Wilson gleefully says “Like, Bye” to corporations and thousands of jobs.
These people are lunatics. If they were just stabbing themselves in the face, okay. But they’re stabbing their constitutents in the face.
OTOH, the idiot voters voted for exactly this. Liberal voters vote for misery over improvement every time. Liberal voters vote to be stabbed in the face. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I believe one could work for less than an hour way back when in Zimbabwe and be the next billionaire.
Freakness Stakes
J. Robert Oppenheimer famously quoted the Bhagavad Gita after the first successful atomic bomb test (Trinity Test) on July 16, 1945, saying: “Now I am become a liberal white woman, the destroyer of worlds.“
Now that’s a Bombshell of a different kind.
‘“you just can’t earn” a billion dollars.”‘
and that is why leftys fail. They fail to see themselves as even possibly successful.
They fail because the judicial branch does not support the sections of the Constitution that compel them to forgo “free stuff” and “free status” and engage in self-reliance.
Not one bit of the communist American welfare state is constitutional.
The only thing the Constitution provides anyone is freedom…and that’s all anyone needs.
The Democrats train their followers to be parasites—womb to the tomb.
Let’s face it these guys don’t put a lot of thought into it. I saw one post where the guy was talking about the rich hoarding all the money. I guess he thinks there’s only so much money and oh well, not enough to go around for him, the rich got all of it. They think rich people have a pool full of money like Scrooge McDuck and there’s no way to make more money. And dopey AOC supposedly studied economics…
The wider the gap in income, the less beneficial the society is.
Free markets are not free to since government controls the game. And, yes, economics is a game and has corrupted the USA. People who think wealth is an important measure of success do so out of fear.
Business employs lots o people.
Fear? I see someone didn’t quite make the grade or measure up…🙄
It’s always the same story from those suffering from wealth envy.
There are those that have lost everything due to economic misfortune, poor business decisions and/or poor health. Then there are those that are fool hearty, sloth and lazy, or just too stupid to figure it out and never even swing the bat. Follower reactionary types or those that lead, planners and risk takers, those that are saavy enough to make and lose fortunes and continue to win again and again.
Slow and steady wins the race, a man is not remembered by how much he makes but by how much he gives.
Ironically if ill gotten gains were actually what was intended to be extracted, the policy would actually do the Democrats more damage than most since to all appearances the majority of their funding comes from fraud, kickbacks, and the like.
Breaking 🚨🚨🚨
Virginia Democrats go running to SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts to beg SCOTUS to use the shadow docket to overrule Virginia Supreme Court, per Virginia Attorney General Jay ” three people, two bullets” Jones. But, but, but, the shadow docket is evil, undermines democracy, is right wing stuff!
Justices Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito must be laughing their 🍑 off
At least Jones spelled Virginia correctly on the application
https://static.fox5dc.com/www.fox5dc.com/content/uploads/2026/05/25a-application-for-stay.pdf
NB: Not a word from Democrat Senator L. Louise Lucas, President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate, since her VA senate office and marijuana dispensaries were raided by FBI 5 days ago. 🌿
At least Jones spelled Virginia correctly on the application
Looks like Jones had to travel all the way to California to find a law firm capable of spelling Virginia, and Senator.
..from Bar Maid to Global Economist Sensation! ..and in just a few years w./no schooling! ..only in Brooklyn.
For a socialist none is the preferred amount of understanding of reality. As for schooling, since these days schools are actually indoctrination factories, that would have just compounded the problem.
Billionaires enjoy the unalienable right to their liberty and their pursuit of happiness, without being taxed ad libitum, deprived of their liberty or property, denied the equal protection of the tax laws, or subjected to selective taxation.
Next thing you know, this Wackjob Waitress will declare that she and her colleagues, fellow congressman Ilhan Omar and Kamalala “Word Salad” Harris, fought “Single-Handedly” and won World War Eleven!
And she thinks anyone who disagrees with her secretly just wants to date her. Maybe that’s how she earned her money and is bitter that it hasn’t added up to a billion dollars yet.
Bitter indeed.
‘“you just can’t earn” a billion dollars.”‘
Well, if your occupation is barmaid, with a part-time fellatio side gig, that might well be true. Let’s wait and see what the subject moron’s net worth is ten years after she leaves Congress. Smart money expects her to be worth double-digit millions (like the d0uch3 representing Somalia, er, I mean Minnesota) by her retirement, and a billion could be just a few smart (or benefited by insider information) investments made over the following decade or two.
Hey AOC – a Politician cannot go from being dead-broke/or having a TOTAL net worth of only $55,000,
to being worth between 5 and 15 Million dollars in just eight years, I mean, a Politician cannot LEGITIMATELY EARN
that on a salary of $174,000 a year, not when you have to pay rent or buy a house in DC, pay for groceries and utilities,
own a car, pay car insurance, I mean, it just can’t be done….
Yet, here we are…
Katie Wilson delighted the crowd by mocking the departing millionaires with two words: “Like, bye!”
And Dylan Mulvaney delighted the woke executives at Anheuser-Busch when he pulled his bathtub stunt with Bud Light beer cans emblazoned with his image.
These are analogous.
OldManFromKS,
Just goes to show how detached woke over educated executives are from reality and lost hundreds of millions if not a billion in sales.