Actual billion is just a dramatic number I don't think if you've done that big you can be trusted

I've had similar thoughts, I was slower typing this.

(future Korazail here. On rereading, I want to be clear about the difference between wealth and income. I think we tend to focus on income tax brackets, but the real danger is when the super wealthy can fund their lifestyle and power on the idea that they have money. Rarely are they counting any of that as income, so wonderingwanderer's thought of <1b income would apply to nobody. We need to tax wealth. I earn $$$$ each year, but my bank balance is $ because it costs $$ to exist and I am fortunate enough to have $ to spend on luxuries and keep $ in reserve. If I had a bank balance of $$$$$, then it doesn't matter how much I earn in a year; my money itself provides the $$ to exist and $$$ for luxuries with overhead to spare. I might be able to retire on a bank balance of $$. The billionaires have $$$$$$$$$$ in the bank and it would take me 9 million years to catch up at my rate)

Give them some time to prepare, but a wealth cap with harsh penalties seems a pretty reasonable solution to the wealth inequality problem. Death would be a pretty damn harsh penalty, but a really effective one. I'd also take taxing or socializing their assets until they are under the cap.

A billion dollars is just such a staggering amount of money that there's no reason for any person to control it. And as for 'why lynch this billionaire?' You don't get to a billion in net worth all by yourself. I'd posit that Taylor Swift is my favorite billionaire, and she is known for treating her staff well and giving out life-changing amounts of money to individuals that work for her... but what if she were incentivized to keep her worth below a billion? Larger donations to charity, lower ticket prices to her shows, better pay rates to her staff instead of bonuses (which would raise competitive pay for others in the industry), etc.

People like musk can just fuck right off. They provide no real value. If you invent something that is so useful that it is worth multiple billions, make it a public asset and go invent the next thing. If you made it to a billion dollars, just shut up and retire. Let someone else figure out the next step and get their billion, you don't need two. The person who suggested bezos pivot from bookstore into general marketplace was probably a random developer who is still there and making <100k/year, but they had the good idea, not the guy with the purse. If we all had more purse, I think we'd have more people trying things and finding the next big thing.

If I were to author a law, I'd tie the cap to a multiplier or fraction of some economic indicator that isn't individual, like total money transacted in a year globally or something. The number should be around a billion at this moment, but I'm not really mad at it being higher, since we're targeting the small number of people hoarding wealth.

If you make the cap feel really big, like a billion, then the people, even with millions to their name, won't feel like it will ever apply to them; but the real predators with multiple billions will be impacted.

allow anyone to make up to $999,999,999 after-tax

way too much

this highlights EXACTLY one of the problems with "billionaires" discourse, in fact