San Francisco's billionaire bacchanal a big bust

"Just one percent of Americans hold nearly a third of the nation's wealth. So it was fitting that after organizers announced an apparently earnest "March for Billionaires" for this Saturday at Alta Plaza Park, only a handful of pro-billionaire agitators actually showed. Mission Local contributor Benjamin Wachs coined a term for an event in which media observers outnumber participants: a panopticonference. This was close to that. Those in attendance did their best to field questions from the barrage of journalists that backed them into a tree."

"The march's organizers did many of the things good protesters do, like hold up handmade posters with slogans like "We *heart* you Jeffrey Bezos" and "It's very difficult to write a nuanced argument on a sign," even when their hands trembled. But the discourse sounded more like what you'd hear at a high school debate conference, public forum style (which, for those who were cool in high school, consists of speeches, crossfire questioning, and rebuttals)."

"The protesters argued that, broadly, very rich individuals have gotten a bad rap. Derik Kauffman, the founder of an artificial-intelligence startup and the leader of the small band of billionaire admirers, laid out his stance to the assembled crowd of reporters, observers, and passersbys looking to get in a good heckle on a sunny Saturday in the park. Kauffman feared that California's proposed wealth tax, a planned one-time 5 percent levy on the state's roughly 200 billionaires, would drive the fat cats away and discourage aspirational billionaires from forming companies here. The tens of billions of dollars that could be raised from this tax would fund healthcare, a journalist said. What did Kauffman think of that? Kauffman began his rebuttal, but it was drowned out by the hubbub of a "counter protester" wearing a towering papier-mâché chef puppet costume chasing around a man in a crown. "He's coming to eat the ri"

One percent of Americans hold nearly a third of the nation's wealth, and a small "March for Billionaires" at Alta Plaza Park drew only a handful of supporters while journalists dominated attendance. Organizers held handmade signs professing admiration for billionaires, and participants debated in a public-forum, debate-conference style. Derik Kauffman, an AI-startup founder leading the group, warned that California's proposed one-time 5 percent wealth tax on roughly 200 billionaires would drive wealthy individuals away and discourage aspiring founders. A reporter noted the tax could fund healthcare; Kauffman's rebuttal was interrupted by a theatrical counterprotester.

Read at Mission Local