So, the news comes in that Mark Zuckerberg is not going to leave California even if the 5% wealth tax passes. Jensen Huang of Nvidia isn’t moving either. Some billionaires have, most notably Thiel to Argentina, and a few to Texas, but overall, most are staying in place.

A just-released SEC filing makes an extraordinary revelation: Mark Zuckerberg is getting ready to pay California’s 5% billionaire wealth tax and has signed an agreement to remain in California for 8 years.

Here’s the thing, there aren’t a lot of world class cities, and there are even fewer industrial and tech centers, for smart leaders who want to be where things are happening.

In the US there’s L.A, San Fran, New York and if you’re very political, DC. Chicago, Miami, Austin and Dallas are second tier options, but can be made to work. Boston seems to have fallen out of the great US cities, except for academia, but that’s under heavy assault.

In Europe there’s a few, but basically Paris and London are the main spots.

Japan has Tokyo, Dubai isn’t an option any more.

And that’s about it. Most billionaires aren’t willing to live in some regional city. As for moving tax domicile, it’s certainly possible, but only because Europe and the US allow it: it’s simple enough to tax all domestic income and go after foreign hidden money: when Switzerland tried to resist the IRS, the IRS broke them. You simply have to have the political will.

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If we want to tax billionaires it’s not hard. Where are they going to go? China won’t take most of them, and if it does, it’s damn well going to tax them, and might even execute them if they pull the sort of fraud they routinely commit in the West. Russia isn’t an option any more. Tax havens exist only because they are allowed to exist.

There’s always an excuse for why we can’t tax the rich, but the most bogus one is that they’ll “just move”. That’s only true IF tax laws are set up to allow it and there’s no cooperation between countries. But basically any time the US and Europe get serious, it ends.

Of course it won’t end, yet, because billionaires own the governments of most countries. But nothing lasts forever, and the tide is turning.