Zohran Mamdani Doesn’t Think We Should Have Billionaires. Here’s Why That Will Never Happen.

Forbes

Fresh off his shellacking of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor, New York state assembly member Zohran Mamdani is the hottest guest on the press circuit. When asked on NBC if he thought billionaires have the right to exist, he chuckled. “I don’t think that we should have billionaires,” he said, “because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality.”  The United States is a fiercely capitalist society based on the meritocratic idea that everyone has the opportunity to build their own futures—and fortunes. Billionaires typically make their money by starting companies that are engines of innovation, and which employ millions of their fellow citizens. Think Amazon. Nike. Walmart. Microsoft. Google. If the U.S. were to enact a hyper-aggressive wealth and asset tax—the only way to truly attack fortunes of this size, because most billionaires have little in the way of ordinary income—it might push many billionaires to leave the country and take their companies with them.  There’s another practical roadblock: The U.S. is led by a billionaire president who has surrounded himself with a posse of billionaires, all of whom are likely to fight off wealth tax proposals. Not to mention that Congress just passed a megabill that protects billionaires’ wealth more than ever before.  But, just for kicks, say that America really decided it wanted to get rid of its billionaires. How could that be accomplished? Short of firing squads and nationalizing much of the economy (see: Russia, 1917; Cuba, 1959), the only possible answer is massive, confiscatory taxes.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylemullins/2025/07/08/memo-to-mamdani-how-to-get-rid-of-billionaires/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Mamdani doesn't think we should have billionaires. Here's why that will never

00:05happen. Fresh off his shellacking of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic

00:11primary for mayor, New York State Assembly member Zoran Mamdani has been the hottest guest on the

00:17press circuit. When asked on NBC if he thought billionaires have the right to exist, he chuckled

00:23and said, quote, I don't think that we should have billionaires because frankly, it is so much money

00:28in a moment of such inequality. The United States is a fiercely capitalist society based on the

00:34meritocratic idea that everyone has the opportunity to build their own futures and fortunes. Billionaires

00:41typically make their money by starting companies that are engines of innovation and which employ

00:45millions of their fellow citizens. Think Amazon, Nike, Walmart, Microsoft, Google. The only way to truly

00:53attack fortunes of this size, because most billionaires have little in the way of ordinary

00:57income, is by enacting a hyper-aggressive wealth and asset tax. There's also a practical roadblock.

01:04The U.S. is currently led by a billionaire president who has surrounded himself with a posse of

01:08billionaires, all of whom are likely to fight off wealth tax proposals. Not to mention that Congress

01:14just passed a megabill that protects billionaires' wealth more than ever before. But, just for kicks,

01:21say that America really decided it wanted to get rid of its billionaires. How could that be

01:25accomplished? The only possible answer is massive confiscatory taxes. It has been tried before. At the

01:33onset of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed capping Americans' post-tax income at

01:39$25,000, or $50,000 for couples, about $1 million today. Congress set the top marginal rate at 94% in 1944

01:48and 1945 and 1945 and required the paycheck withholding system still in use today. Today,

01:56taxes on wealth, as opposed to income, form the core of anti-billionaire crusaders' plans to

02:01eliminate the largest fortunes. When running for president in 2020, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders

02:07proposed a graduated tax on wealth over $32 million that capped out at a rate of 8% on anything over

02:13$10 billion, claiming that it would, quote, cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years.

02:21Such a tax would cost the world's richest person, Elon Musk, over $30 billion in the first year and,

02:27even assuming zero growth in his fortune, would take nearly 20 years to just get his wealth below

02:32$100 billion. He would likely be forced to annually sell an enormous number of Tesla shares to cover the

02:39annual payments. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's 2020 plan would have taxed wealth over

02:45$50 million at 2% and wealth over $1 billion at 6%. She, alongside Washington Representative Pramila

02:53Jayapal and Pennsylvania Representative Brendan Boyle, have reintroduced her so-called ultra-millionaire's

02:59tax, a similar policy that tops out at 3%, in Congress. Jayapal, who chairs the House Progressive

03:06Caucus, tells Forbes that she largely agrees with Mamdani's idea. She says, quote,

03:11I suppose if there was a scenario in which you could have a couple of billionaires, but everyone

03:15else was doing extremely well, that might be one thing. But it seems that the way our tax policies

03:20focus, billionaires become billionaires at the expense of everyone else. Of course, you need to

03:27put the IRS on steroids to make this sort of wealth tax work and police the wealthy from moving their

03:32money offshore. The U.S. would also have to implement an exit tax and negotiate complex tax treaties with

03:38other countries. Chuck Collins, who studies inequality at the left-wing Institute for Policy Studies

03:44and co-edits a website called inequality.org, says, quote, there would always be the Cook Islands and a few

03:50places like that that would try to be outside that system. But the reality is, most of those countries want

03:56to participate in a global economy. And so you can say, well, yeah, you need to sign on to a global tax

04:02regime. Mamdani, it seems, isn't looking to tax all the billionaires in New York to oblivion.

04:08His plans for revenue include increasing New York's top corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5%

04:15in line with New Jersey and adding a 2% surcharge to personal income over $1 million. That's hardly

04:22enough to vaporize anyone's wealth. But to get even that, he'll need New York Governor Kathy Hochul's

04:28buy-in, already a long shot. For full coverage, check out Kyle Kahn-Mullins and Lily Ogburn's piece

04:35on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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