Billionaires: Don’t Be Evil
In the early, heady days of the “information superhighway” there was a sense that technology and, specifically the internet, offered the public something new, fresh and liberating.
The possibilities and applications were endless. The promise of a new, non-exploitative basket of tools and technologies atop the “world wide web” was said to offer untold numbers of people the opportunity to tell their story, start a business, curate their own public personas, look up anything instantly and communicate with others the world over. And much, much more.
The public mood was hopeful. It was optimistic. It was egalitarian. It was democratic. It was cool.
Wow, those were the days!
Google was founded by two Stanford graduate student computer scientists in 1998. The initial public offering took place six years later and the investor prospectus proclaimed: “Together we strive toward a common mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Early in the company’s history until about 2015, Google’s official motto was “Don’t be evil”. It appeared prominently in the 2004 IPO prospectus, and it was embedded in the official company code of conduct. In other words, Google claimed to take the motto seriously.
That was then. This is now.
The company, founded in 1998 in a Menlo Park garage, today has a market capitalization of almost $5 trillion. The founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, now have combined net worth well beyond $500 billion.
What happened to those idealistic grad students? What about the motto? Say it ain’t so, Sergey and Larry!
On July 4, 2025 (relish the irony) President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill thus conferring an enormous, unnecessary tax break to the wealthiest Americans and simultaneously defunding Medicaid, the largest healthcare coverage program in America and California by $1 trillion over the next decade. For those keeping score, Medicaid provides basic healthcare services to over 80 million Americans including 15 million Californians.
In order to prevent this calamity, the frontline caregivers of SEIU-UHW have proposed a one time, emergency tax on only California’s two hundred billionaires to backfill, for the next five years, the healthcare cuts contained in the OBBB.
Recent press reports peg the two Google founders combined net worth at about $550 billion. Consequently, after the California Billionaire Tax Act is passed by voters this November, Sergey and Larry will still be worth about $525 billion, and tens of millions of Californians will continue to have essential, modest healthcare benefits and services.
So why did Sergey issue the following statement: “I fled socialism with my family in 1979 and know the devastating, oppressive society it created in the Soviet Union. I don’t want California to end up in the same place.”?
It’s a long way from “Don’t be evil” to declaring Soviet style, state socialism is right around the corner in California because two of the five wealthiest people in the world will be left with “only” $525 billion.
It’s also a long way from cogent to claim that the “devastating, oppressive” feature is something other than 150,000 healthcare workers projected to be laid off, 3.5 million Californians losing health coverage or 20 million plus California consumers paying skyrocketing healthcare premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
The rich billionaires are indeed, different.
It’s worth noting that Sergey’s evolution from “don’t be evil” idealist to “let them eat cake” plutocrat also includes a budding bromance with President Trump and a romance with a thirty-two year old “holistic health coach” recently quoted in The New York Times: “Mucho gratitude for my lovey, as without him I wouldn’t know the president or have even been at the inauguration.”
Sergey’s girlfriend, Geralyn Gilbert-Soto, considers President Trump to be her “bestie” and he, in turn, considers her to be Sergey’s “really wonderful MAGA girlfriend.”
Apparently, the world looks very different when viewed from private dinners at the White House and Mar-a-Lago than it does from a garage in Menlo Park.
The world also looks very different when, instead of focusing on building the best search engine, Google is now increasingly focused on contracts with the Pentagon and law enforcement agencies to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
When it’s all said and done, we’ve seen this movie many times before. There is nothing new about obscenely rich people thinking way more than enough is never enough. There’s nothing new about creepy older guys embarrassing themselves with much younger women. And there’s nothing new about ignoring unnecessary, large-scale human suffering so long as it proves profitable. All these things are as old as the hills.
What is new, is that for the first time ever, billionaires will be called to account regarding what is fair and reasonable, for the whole of our state, when the California Billionaire Tax Act goes before voters on November 3, 2026.
A few years ago “don’t be evil” became incompatible with Google’s future plans so they changed the company motto to “do the right thing.”
It may be time for another refresh. From a Menlo Park garage organizing the world’s information to be universally accessible to a Nevada hideout with Donald Trump’s “bestie,” shrieking about “socialism” as the federal defense and homeland security dollars keep rolling in. You can’t make this stuff up.
In November, California voters will have a chance for a two-fer. By voting to pass the billionaire tax we get to “don’t be evil” at the same time we “do the right thing”.
It’s the new California Dream. And it’s about time.
This kind of wealth—it sickens the people who hoard it and robs the people who earn it.
Amen