Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Monday, July 14th.

Today on Forbes, Mamdani doesn't think we should have billionaires.

Here's why that will never happen.

Fresh off his shalacking of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor,

New York State Assembly member Zoran Mam Mamdani, has been the hottest guest

on the press circuit. When asked on NBC if he thought billionaires have the right to exist,

he chuckled and said, quote, I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly,

it is so much money in a moment of such inequality. The United States is a fiercely capitalist society, based on the meritocratic idea

that everyone has the opportunity to build their own futures and fortunes.

Billionaires typically make their money by starting companies that are engines of innovation,

and which employ millions of their fellow citizens.

Think Amazon, Nike, Walmart, Microsoft, Google.

The only way to truly attack fortunes of this size, because most billionaires have little

in the way of ordinary income, is by enacting a hyper-aggressive wealth and asset tax.

There's also a practical roadblock. The U.S. is currently led by a billionaire president who is surrounded himself with a posse of

billionaires, all of whom are likely to fight off wealth tax proposals.

Not to mention that Congress just passed a mega bill that protects billionaire's wealth more

than ever before.

But, just for kicks, say that America really decided it wanted to get rid of its billionaires.

How could that be accomplished?

The only possible answer is massive, confiscatory taxes.

It has been tried before.

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