Could a tax on billionaires solve California's inequality crisis?
Here & Now Anytime
NPR
4.1 • 953 Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Then, it's not just affordability that's becoming a problem; so is inequality. Now, California is debating one potential solution: a tax on the wealth held by that state's billionaires. North Carolina State University professor Christina Lewellen discusses the pros and cons of a wealth tax.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 0:05.3 | It's incredible that Donald Trump continues to put forth this lie to the American people |
| 0:10.4 | that the affordability crisis in this country is a hoax or some type of democratic scam. |
| 0:15.7 | It's very real. |
| 0:17.1 | Voters tell pollsters they're struggling to pay for basic needs. |
| 0:22.1 | Politicians from both parties are talking a lot about affordability, |
| 0:25.6 | but not everyone is staying on message. |
| 0:37.4 | It's Wednesday, December 10th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBR. |
| 0:42.7 | I'm Chris Bentley. |
| 0:46.9 | Today on the show, affordability is admittedly a kind of clunky word for something everybody pretty much understands. |
| 0:55.5 | Things are getting too expensive for a lot of people. |
| 0:58.5 | We've got a few conversations about that today, |
| 1:01.2 | and how the political system is sort of responding to what many voters are increasingly |
| 1:06.8 | recognizing as a crisis. |
| 1:09.2 | In a few minutes, we'll hear about a bill in California that would tax billionaires |
| 1:12.8 | based not on what they make in income, but on what they own. |
| 1:17.1 | Mark Zuckerberg only receives a dollar in salaries, but he has a substantial amount of wealth |
| 1:21.7 | accumulated. |
| 1:22.9 | Would a wealth tax work? |
| 1:25.1 | And could it pass? |
| 1:31.0 | But wealth tax work, and could it pass? But first, we heard the Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at the top of the |
| 1:36.2 | show a minute ago, reacting this morning to what was supposed to be the launch of President |
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