Brian Galle is not looking to ban billionaires. In fact, the tax law expert and key architect behind California’s controversial wealth tax proposal described himself as an “enthusiastic capitalist” in a recent interview with Fortune. “I think capitalism is a great system that probably has, you know, enriched the lives of billions of people,” he told Fortune over Zoom from his office in Berkeley, where he teaches courses on tax and nonprofit law. “But I’m not sure that our system is a functioning capitalist system right now.
“I’m interested in how things work,” Galle added. “And right now, it [capitalism] doesn’t seem to be working well.” Speaking to Fortune about his forthcoming new book, How to Tax the Ultrarich, Galle said one of its central arguments is that domination by a small number of families leads to “bad economies” that grow more slowly and often have crippling inflation and stagnation. (Galle’s publisher, the Roosevelt Institute, has provided a rundown of the book’s arguments.)
