Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) this week declared that true billionaires are a fantasy—a claim that underscores the left's escalating push to tax the rich out of existence. On a podcast, the progressive firebrand argued that no one can legitimately earn a billion dollars, framing extreme wealth as the product of market manipulation, rule-breaking, and labor exploitation rather than genuine entrepreneurship.
"You just can't earn a billion dollars," Ocasio-Cortez said, dismissing the notion of self-made billionaires as a capitalist fable. Her remarks come as Democrats in several states advance millionaire and billionaire tax proposals, rhetoric that has already triggered an exodus of high earners from places like California and New York. The pattern echoes the French experience under François Mitterrand, when a wealth tax drove the rich abroad and tanked the economy—a history lesson the left appears eager to repeat.
Ocasio-Cortez's comments align with a broader narrative that wealth accumulation beyond a certain point is inherently unearned. "You can get market power, you can break rules, you can abuse labor laws, you can pay people less than what they're worth, but you can't earn that," she said. This framing, detailed in the book "Rage and the Republic," fuels what critics call "eat-the-rich" politics, designed to make redistribution schemes more palatable to voters.
The push for a billionaire tax gained momentum in California, where a ballot measure is already costing the state billions as wealthy residents flee to zero-income-tax states like Texas and Florida. During a recent gubernatorial debate, candidate Katie Porter (D) opposed the tax as insufficient, while billionaire candidate Tom Steyer—who has spent roughly $150 million of his own money on the race—supported it but called for even more aggressive measures. Steyer has apologized for profiting from private prisons, yet he remains stuck in single digits in polls.
The exodus isn't limited to billionaires. In Seattle, socialist Mayor Katie Wilson laughed off questions about millionaires fleeing rising taxes and crime, quipping, "Like, bye!" But her city faces a projected $114 million deficit, and the departures threaten the tax base needed to fund public services. Similarly, New York's socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani has promised free buses and state-run grocery stores, policies that may accelerate the outflow of high earners.
Democrats from Washington to Virginia are pushing millionaire taxes, and the mere conversation has triggered a stampede of high-earning taxpayers to red states with no income tax. The top 10% of taxpayers already pay the vast majority of federal taxes, but the left's narrative—that the wealthy don't pay their fair share—persists. This myth, along with claims that most millionaires inherited their wealth, is designed to justify higher taxes on the rich.
The irony is that the left's policies are making its myth a reality. As billionaires and millionaires flee hostile tax regimes, states like New York and California may soon have fewer wealthy residents to tax—leaving workers to bear the cost of lost revenue. Soaring national debt further complicates the fiscal picture, as states struggle to balance budgets without the rich.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has joined Bernie Sanders in pushing a national billionaire tax to prevent the wealthy from escaping state-level levies. But such efforts risk repeating the mistakes of Mitterrand's France, where capital flight devastated the economy. Meanwhile, middle-class income gains in some states contrast with the left's focus on taxing the rich, raising questions about whether the strategy benefits ordinary workers.
Ultimately, Ocasio-Cortez's unicorn myth—borrowing a term from venture capital for billion-dollar startups—reflects a denial of economic realities. As Democrats sell voters on $30 minimum wages and anti-merger policies that cost jobs, the cost of these soundbites is borne by the workers they claim to champion. Recent Supreme Court rulings on donor privacy may further complicate efforts to track the wealthy, but the left's rhetoric shows no sign of abating.
