I was a precocious kid, so I picked up on my parents’ worries about money early on.
By kindergarten, I’d figured out a way to pitch in. I wore shorts as much as possible, because if I fell and skinned my knee, it would heal for free – but if I ripped my jeans, my parents might have to buy me a new pair.
My parents were working-class high school graduates. We owe what became a middle-class upbringing to my dad making a big bet on going to night school to learn COBOL in the 1970s.
Thanks to that and their willingness to do whatever it took to ensure their kids could go to college, now I’m a tech worker with an Ivy League degree.
And I’m doing better than I ever imagined financially.
This year, the company I work for was acquired by IBM to bolster the tech giant’s AI strategy. As a result, I’m adding more money to the big pile my wife and I have already accumulated.
We’ll owe the biggest federal tax bill ever. And I’m not the least bit mad about it. But I wish the state were taking a bit of it, too.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not anything like Bill Gates rich. But we have enough to live our best lives. We don’t think about the cost of groceries or housing or vacations.
But I know plenty of people in our city and state are struggling. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Our state’s tax code operates on a scarcity mentality. That’s gotten us stuck in a doom loop.
Seattle is looking at a budget deficit. So is King County. And the state. This, when Seattle’s per capita GDP is second in the world only to San Francisco, making us the second-wealthiest city in human history.
There’s more than enough wealth for us to have nice things – like affordable housing, mental health treatment, food banks and something on my own wishlist: an investment in planting a million trees in Seattle that would help us blow past our tree canopy goals, provide shade, and beautify all our neighborhoods.
The solution is simple: Require wealthy people like me to pay more in taxes and our cities and towns can afford things that would make life better for more people (ourselves included).
There are plenty of options, like the millionaires tax, a 9.9% tax on individual earnings over $1 million a year. Legislators are rightfully considering other options as well, like a financial intangibles tax on worldwide wealth or a payroll excise tax.
The amounts being considered wouldn’t make a material difference to the wealthy few who would pay it. For me, nothing about our lifestyle would change.
I promise you we won’t leave. Wealth flight is a myth that has been debunked time and again.
And specific to us tech workers: Where would we go? We’re a global hub for AI talent, which makes it one of the best places to be in the trillion-dollar transformation of the world’s economy through AI.
When some of us do well, we should all do well. That’s a formula for a nicer city, including plenty of trees, safe streets, thriving small businesses, vibrant art and music scenes, and great local restaurants and bars.
The tech industry is akin to a natural resource for our state and elected leaders should treat it as such. They should act as if our state were sitting on major gold deposits and tax the gold!
If they don’t, they’ll miss out on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ask those making the most, getting richer in what’s likely to be a decade-long AI boom, to pay some of their wealth forward.
When we tax the wealth created now, we can make sure every family has the opportunity to build a good life, just like my parents were able to do in a much less expensive and less opportunity-rich place and time.
