Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, whose company commands a market capitalization near $154 billion, told his social media followers this week that a tax-tiered voting system—one that would strip voting rights from anyone who pays no income tax—would be a “good system.”
That two-word endorsement, dropped into a viral thread, has reignited a debate over wealth, power, and democracy that most Americans thought was settled more than a century ago.
The proposal would invert the founding American principle of “no taxation without representation” into something closer to “no representation without taxation”—and specifically, high taxation. Reactions online split sharply: Some framed it as a provocative thought experiment about aligning fiscal responsibility with political voice, while others called it a naked attempt to legitimize plutocracy by giving billionaires and multimillionaires a formal, multiplied vote over the laws that govern everyone else.
But it also revealed that America is grappling with a political economy debate, as a frozen housing market and an entrenched wealthy baby boomer demographic have many, not just Lütke, arguing that something big needs to change
At this point, their necks practically beg for the guillotine’s blade. They keep reminding us:
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of . . . tyrants.
-Thomas Jefferson in November 13, 1787, letter to William Stephens Smith.
That’s literally the problem, United Statesians just believe money is the only thing that matters. Rape children, bomb civilians, pollute water and air — no, that’s not a problem, we can look past that. If you make lots of money you are a good person, the more the better. That’s just very literally how our society aligns itself.
Like it’s so absurd, oh you took a sabbatical and had zero income, no vote for you! Like did the renaissance NOT happen? What is going on in our country??
If you make lots of money you are a good person, the more the better. That’s just very literally how our society aligns itself.
Gotta love the prosperity gospel. It is, in fact, God that makes you rich if you’re a good person. Not exploitation of labour. And God makes you poor or gives you bad health if you’re a bad person.
Because he’s a Fascist worth $154B. Mystery solved.
Other ledgers have him under worthless
But everyone pays taxes, even the unemployed. Every purchase has taxes on it. For this proposal to work as he wants, the entire tax burden will have to be transferred to the income tax. Enjoy the tax hike and labor crisis.
captain logical you got em.
Technofeudalism is real.
Because the rich think they’re better than us and have stopped fearing us
How about no vote if your net worth is above 100m and you pay less than 25% in tax annually
I’ve always liked the idea of once you hit $999,999,999 net worth, everything above that is 100% taxed and you get a little trophy that says “Congratulations on Winning Capitalism” and you get your name of the wall of a local bar.
I don’t hate this, but my main concern has always been I don’t think people who own companies should be forced to sell their shares in what they built.
Maybe there are other fixes like taxing loans against equity as if the shares were sold (at whatever rate, like you propose)… That way you can hold more than a billion in net worth, but you can’t really access it.
Because thats how the rich see the 99.8% that isn’t them, duh.
Because he’s a piece of shit
Because the Ouroborus of capitalism has eaten around to the point it can see the back of its own head, and now it only has two solutions left.
maximize short term profits at the expense of everything else, and secure their position via buying governments/overthrowing governments/becoming government, in order to secure the constant flow of money and goods upwards to them.
So when we gonna start tracking the movements of these evil people so it easier for people to Luigi them?
What is “sociopathy”
The finest trait a CEO in a capitalist world could have,
“pine”?
As in “their necks pined for the guillotine”
Woops! Forgot a word. Ty!
one that would strip voting rights from anyone who pays no income tax
So he’s in favor of stripping the voting rights of billionaires?
i think thats his argument. make billionaires pay tax to compete for policies. basically calling bribes tax or real life p2w, which it is currently but legal.
My take is, sack all of these billionaires and idiots on an remote small little island and let them figure out how they wanna govern themselves.
Like atlas shrugged? i like it! If we use the Randian framing they’ll probably eat it up!
“nooo dont leave whatever will we do without someone to boss us around noooo please dont isolate yourself on a remote island pleeeeeease”
and then just not let em back in if they try
The self-serving “anarcho-capitalist” whore that died dependent on Medicare and social security.
HEY! Don’t do whores dirty like that.
Since they shit and cum so hard over that book, I’m surprised they haven’t just done it yet. Honestly.
T. Rump is pretty much establishing the government for that timeline.
Me too, but you know, its probably because somewhere deep down they know it wouldn’t work. Or maybe they did try, maybe that was exactly what epstein was trying to do on that island (+ the child raping).
It’s rare for something to give me such a visceral reaction, but reading that last bit had me exclaim my disgust loud enough that my dog woke from his nap on the balcony to come check on me.
Eugh. We need more queen of hearts in the world.
https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project
They tried and failed.
Edit: there’s also SeaLand, of course. Which apparently still exists and has one whole resident:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand?wprov=sfla1
Even better, let them do it at the bottom of the fucking ocean
Its where they keep the sexiest children.
Yup. Trust me billionaires it is so great down there you should risk it all to get down down there!
That’s not his argument. He, like all billionaires, think they pay too much. They still end up paying social security and Medicaid. It just ends up being less than 1% because it capped. He would still get to vote in his new proposed system.
Does one vote matter if you can buy thousands?
Tobias Lütke is a German born Canadian. Why is he commenting about US elections at all? He has never voted in the US.
Because he makes money from it, capitalism and fascism have no borders.
Edit: and I’m sure he’s voted with his dollars.
Because he hates democracy everywhere, and thinks the US might be the next to fall, if it hasn’t already.
Never having a history of voting in an election is insufficient to the determination of excluding a voter for ineligibility.
Yet another reason for me to dislike Shopify.
I already hated that all the small retailers I use have migrated to it and it pushes you to set up an account so that it can connect all my purchasing habits together from what should be independent retailers.
