RG

NAA (NonAthleteAthlete). All American Knee Driver.

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@Top100Rick Why do I always see the stock yardages on irons of tour pros pretty normal but then I’m watching the event and everyone is hitting 9 iron on a 185 yard par 3.

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@schwarbombz I mean this is an absolutely bizarre angle to take on all this.

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@KyleKulinski @chamath @RoKhanna You are so angry at everything haha

[Absolutely Hammered @ah_pod]

nothing says "I want to win." like going from a team that was in the world series to one that missed the playoffs after a historic collapse.

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@PhillyPMC @ConcordPike Haha I laughed right away and said wait. My wife said “what?”

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@MLB @MLBNetwork @JonHeyman What a joke.

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@timothysykes I’m watching the Ole Miss Miami game. It’s really good.

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

I get why people want a billionaire tax... The anger isn't irrational; it's a response to a system that feels rigged to some.

When someone worth $10 billion pays a lower effective tax rate than a schoolteacher, something feels wrong, and the system isn't broken by accident, it's working exactly as designed, and that design can be rethought!

If people knew the actual mechanics of how taxes work they would probably be even angrier. If Jensen Huang passed away tomorrow, it would be insanely sad, and-
His estate would pay roughly 40% in federal estate taxes, though with the right setup a lot of that could be avoided. His kids would inherit the remaining tens of billions in Nvidia stock with the cost basis reset to current value, erasing all the appreciation for tax purposes. They could then borrow $100M a year against it, and never pay income tax on any of it. It doesn't feel fair to the teacher paying income tax on every dollar or the software engineer taking home 55% of their paycheck. The frustration is justified.

It feels unfair to the teacher paying taxes on every dollar and the software engineer taking home 55% of their paycheck (California wtf!). The frustration people feel around that is justified! I think I pay too much in taxes too! But we have to pay them, and I think we should strive to build a tax system that is more fair.

But California's "one-time 5% billionaire wealth tax" is a terrible way to go about it
It doesn't stop the borrow-die-inherit cycle
It forces an exodus of exactly the wrong people
It creates perverse incentives without fixing any underlying problems.

Most people seem to have not read the act - here it is: https://t.co/DedQND6Rc9
it's bad and poorly written.

It's a residency trap. Pick a date, pick a line, and you create one giant incentive to leave. You only need a few top taxpayers to go (sounds like Thiel and Brin are getting ready), and California loses years of income tax, capital gains, and the gravity that keeps companies anchored here.

It unfairly punishes the wrong people. A founder with $1B on paper in a Series E startup isn't actually rich yet, that company could go to zero, they can't sell without losing control, and they're still working. A wealth tax forces them to find cash they don't have... you can say "they could sell shares" but not every company is even liquid enough to do that. Meanwhile, someone already liquid can structure around it with better lawyers.

The cheering from @RoKhanna "I will miss them very much" is shortsighted. Celebrating capital flight is celebrating a smaller tax base and bigger deficits. People who start companies are the growth engine of our state and country. Making them your enemy isn't progressive, it's self-defeating.

There's also a practical problem: net worth isn't a clean number. Public stock is easy. Everything else becomes a valuation fight. You'll create a cottage industry of appraisals and litigation.

If we want to address the unfairness, target the specific moves that make the system feel rigged.

Two ideas that actually map to the problem and are palatable IMO:

1. Tax large loans against appreciated stock above a high threshold (say $10M). If someone borrows $50M against stock to fund consumption, that's functionally income. This targets the "borrow to avoid taxes" play directly.

2. End step-up in basis for large inheritances (say above $10M here too). Step-up basis is why "they never pay." Ending it at high levels keeps incentives for entrepreneurship while reducing dynastic wealth transfers that were never taxed.

Those approaches don't punish illiquid founders. They tax moments when wealth turns into spendable cash, and they tax gains that would otherwise be erased.

TBH I don't know if $10M is the right number, just throwing a number out there that seems in the ballpark.

Finally - before we invent new taxes with big second-order effects, we need get our house in order. Middle-class people still pay enormous amounts in taxes, and we are wasting it. I'm not sure that 20% of the budget is fraud (what @elonmusk says) but we definitely have a bloated budget, both federally and in California. As we know from DOGE, it's really hard to fix. In California there is a lot of low hanging fruit though... we need to cut what isn't working and stop treating every problem with "we just need a new tax on a small group to make it work"

I'm not against wealthy people paying their fair share, and I don't think most of us are! I am against feel-good policy that backfires, shrinks the base, and makes the state less competitive. If we want fairness and a tax system people trust, we should go after unfair loopholes, not a headline.

[OldTimeHardball @OleTimeHardball]

George Brett was selected w/the 29th pick in the '71 Draft, and retired with 1596 RBI

Mike Schmidt was selected w/the 30th pick in the '71 Draft, and retired with 1595 RBI

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@ultimatejazzfan @OG_Wan_Ked00bi @kclairerogers Dozens of different people annually made me laugh out loud

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@mike_mo21 @MattMcCarthy985 Settle down

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@K_Kisner I actually have 2 laying in my garage

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@Russty1105 @gotmypokerhat @Mike_kim714 Incorrect

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@gotmypokerhat @Russty1105 @Mike_kim714 Wrong lol. Some of the best players in the world were mid to high 80s. An 18 would probably shoot 200 if you made them play those conditions those tees real rules. People just don’t understand.

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@christi41778735 @LonnieCLonnie @Totinhiiio @unusual_whales Then don’t have one. To say it’s a scam is just nonsense. Not going to argue with a bot

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@TShakCFP @unusual_whales Incorrect

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@LonnieCLonnie @Totinhiiio @unusual_whales Then don’t buy it

[RG @ryanvalverdec]

@sweatystartup Showing people back in the day and now are both in fact ugly contrary to your prior post