Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan launches dark-money group to influence CA politics

Post by zozbot234 » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 10:21 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #181

zozbot234 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really the point. Prop 13 is known to be a huge disincentive to efficient transfers in home ownership - people will strenuously avoid selling their homes and buying something that's closer to the kind of shelter they actually prefer, because they might have to pay a higher assessed property tax if they did that. These effects are very real and well documented.

Prop 13 wouldn't lead to those incentives if property prices didn't increase so aggressively. Once again comes back to zoning as the root cause. Is prop 13 bad? Only in the face of inappropriate zoned capacity, it seems. Which begs the question of what prop 13 removal would even do in such a situation? Zoning capacity isn't changing so prices will still go up beyond what is affordable for the median worker. The only…

Post by JKCalhoun » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 10:23 PM UTC

terminalshort wrote: post #160

oulipo2 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. We should tax billionaires away.

[flagged]

Post by root_axis » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 10:25 PM UTC

andy_ppp wrote: post #5

I think rich people have too much influence, I probably agree with Garry Tan on a lot but we need to get money out of politics. Let’s face it we’re all meant to get one vote but rich people spend money on this stuff so that they manipulate what and who can be voted for. I do think that if this current system is the result of democracy + the internet we need to seriously reconsider how democracy works because it’s cur…

Post by terminalshort » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 10:26 PM UTC

kmeisthax wrote: post #195

terminalshort wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citizens United was the correct decision. I don't understand how you can legitimately restrict political activity. The constitution contains the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Why should certain groups of people not have this right? The constitution also contains the right to freedom of the press. Why should the government get to decide who gets to exercise this right?

Because democracy is "one person one vote", not "one dollar one vote". Around the same time Citizens United was decided, we also got McCutcheon v. FEC, which invalidated campaign contribution limits basically completely. If we take the logic of Citizens United at its word - that money is speech - then letting someone drop billions of dollars to change an election is like firing a sonic weapon at a bunch of protesters…

Post by terminalshort » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 10:27 PM UTC

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #196

terminalshort wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> I believe this because it is his fundamental right as a citizen of the republic. This is kind of exactly my point though. Citizen of what republic? Soros and Elon are both wealthier than most states and affect politics globally . They literally cannot be prosecuted, they are barely accountable to any legal bodies.