Nobody talks about this, but independent billionaires are one of the few checks on state power left. A government can lean on any newspaper, university, or nonprofit it funds, but it can't easily lean on someone who answers to nobody. Dissident media, opposition candidates, and civil liberties lawsuits are frequently bankrolled by wealthy private donors who can't be fired, defunded, or threatened the way institutions can. Give the state the power to decide that nobody may be that rich, and you give the state the power to defund its own critics. That cure is worse than the disease.
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