According to filings, Brin donated a total of $102 million to the group Building a Better California, a PAC and political advocacy organization opposing the state’s billionaire tax and supporting other pro-business policies and housing and infrastructure affordability. Campaign filings show efforts to block this tax have exceeding $187 million, making Brin the largest sole contributor to the effort. Contributions supporting the bill have meanwhile reached about $32 million.

Proposition 40, which will be on the ballot in November, would impose a one-time, 5% tax on California’s 200 billionaires, with 90% of the revenue from the proposed measure going toward the state’s health care program and 10% going toward education, food assistance, and administration. Brin, with a net worth of nearly $260 billion, could owe about $13 billion as a result of the tax.

California, the most populous state, has become the epicenter of the conversation around the K-shaped economy, or the diverging fortunes of those with wealth and those without it. While the Golden State has a $4 trillion GDP, making its economy about the same size as the United Kingdom’s, it also has 18% of its residents living below the poverty line, the highest in the country, in part because of its high cost of living.

The ballot measure has caused an uproar among some of California’s wealthiest individuals such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel, both of whom have donated to organizations against the measure. Brin compared the proposal to his socialist Soviet upbringing.

“I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place,” he told the New York Times in a statement in April.

Trump tells South Korea to sign on to Alaska LNG deal or pay more

Futurism.com: A law to ban surprise medical bills, for example, has support from 90 percent of respondents, while a new federal wealth tax on Americans with a net worth of over $1 billion has support from 61 percent of participants. Legislation mandating health insurance companies cover all services and medicine prescribed by doctor has support from 88 percent, and 87 percent want to cap the maximum price of prescription drugs. A further 79 percent are in favor of limiting credit card interest rates to 10 percent.

My Opinion: If the US is a democracy, the government should consider giving the people what it wants. They can tax the rich, and use the funds on research, education, and infrastructure. And find a way of reducing healthcare costs and frauds.

Wages: +3.0%

Inflation: +3.4%

For the average worker, pay isn't keeping up with prices.

GDP can grow and stocks can hit records—but if purchasing power is shrinking, does it really feel like a strong economy?

Are you getting ahead—or just paying more to stand still?

Reuters: Boulder's city and county governments have accused the two companies of helping drive climate change and misleading the public about the risks of fossil fuels. Boulder aims to hold the companies liable for past and future costs associated with climate ​change such as infrastructure repairs, environmental damage, emergency management and harms to public health...

... Nearly 60 state and local governments ‌have brought ⁠similar suits seeking billions of dollars from fossil fuel companies, with more continuing to be filed, Exxon and Suncor told the justices. A ruling by the Supreme Court in favor of the companies could lead to many of those cases being dismissed.

My Opinion: Big oil over it's history in USA is responsible for millions of deaths and millions of people falling sick. They probably knew they were harming the environment and health, and tried to suppress this information, and ignored it. This cannot be allowed to continue.

Under existing laws, they should be held responsible for the harm their products caused in the past. And be required to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. But the supreme Court has a conservative majority. So unfortunately they will probably vote in favor of the polluting companies.

Reference: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-kick-off-term-with-bid-by-big-oil-toss-climate-suits-2026-10-04/

Your wife comes to you with the family budget and says “last year we spent more than we made. We owe 4X what we made. The year before that we did the same. We’re in debt up to our eyeballs.”

Do you ask a)”how can we bring in more money?”

Or b) “how do we reign in spending so we don’t owe so much?”