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How California’s Billionaires Are Proving that Billionaire Wealth Endangers Democracy

Robert Reich · 30 Oct 2026

Read the piece on robertreich.substack.com ↗

4 korrents from this piece ↓

Robert Reich did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Making a fortune in America is not a zero-sum game.

    Their wordsOr to put it a different way, making a fortune in America isn’t a zero-sum game.

  2. Our reading

    Billionaire wealth becomes a public problem when it enters politics, because it throttles democracy.

    Their wordsBillionaire wealth becomes a public problem when it finds its way into politics — making it harder for average voters to be heard. It throttles democracy.

  3. Our reading

    Wealth is not a zero-sum game, but political power is.

    Their wordsalthough wealth isn’t a zero-sum game, power definitely is a zero-sum game.

  4. Our reading

    Taxing billionaire wealth is important to preserve democracy.

    Their wordsThe more political power the billionaire class has, the less political power the rest of us have. Hence, the importance of taxing their wealth if we want to preserve our democracy.

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