(TikTok screencap)
this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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Sure, it is reductive but I also get what the image is referring to and don't think we have to be too literal about it. It's saying the spirit of that tax (ie. taxing the ultra wealthy) is how Mamdani is going about balancing the budget - while invoking a very recognizable billionaire to drive the point home. I read it more as using Taylor Swift as an example rather than insinuating her taxes, or the secondary estate tax in general, would be enough to balance the budget on their own.
Many hot takes are like this. They're meant to capture your attention, and while they may not be literally true on their own, the good ones have a reasonable conceptual foundation.
I think that it creates a false image in people's eyes.
For context: I'm all for taxing the rich. At the very least the should have all their methods of "avoiding" tax removed, but I honestly hope they get taxed something like 90% for their insane wealth.
At the same time I know a bit about how the world works and I have friends who work in AML, so I know that "taxing the rich" will never bring as much money as people think it would.
Back when Musk pretended to be the "cool leftist millionaire" he would sometimes boast about the taxes he paid, trying to be "the shining example" for other top 1%. He was still paying a tax rate of between 0.4% and 0.1% - thanks to his accountants being creative.
On top of that, people completely do not understand what progressive taxes mean. They think that if you have a tax level of 10% for $0-1000 and 20% for $1001-10000, then it means that if you're earning $2000, you would pay $400 in taxes. Which is not true, you would pay (100010%)+(100020%) = $300.
But this fundamental misunderstanding makes them think that a billionaire should be paying some massive amounts of money from ALL their total net worth (which is also confusing "wealth" with "worth", btw). Even if we somehow someday got a fair and honourable billionaire, their tax payments would feel like they're avoiding taxes because of those misconceptions.
This meme reinforces a false reality where these taxes are significant enough to change things - they're not and they most probably won't be.
It’s not how he’s doing it though. The biggest items in his balancing act are the billions of dollars in state aid and regulatory exemptions he’s called in, the deferral of pensions contributions for 5 years, punting key policies down the road to 202X and an accounting quirk that saw NYC over-estimate the number of employees it would have this FY to the tune of $1.3bn in non-existent salaries. So he did bring $500m in extra taxes, and he negotiated state aid, but mostly it seems to be abot not doing things, and taking the credit for coincidences.