Mark Cuban's Warning: Removing Billionaires Will Collapse the Market

Mark Cuban stated that the elimination of billionaires would lead to a stock market crash and wipe out the savings of average Americans.

Cuban, in a post shared on BlueSky last week, opposed the idea that wealth inequality could be addressed by taxing billionaires or limiting their wealth. Cuban, who has built a $6 billion fortune, argued that extreme wealth is a natural outcome of the market system.

"Billionaires will exist as long as the stock market exists," he said.

He emphasized that the elimination of the stock system would have devastating consequences not just for the rich, but for society as a whole.

After a user pointed out that about 90% of U.S. households' stock assets are owned by the wealthiest 10%, Cuban acknowledged this but warned that forcing these investors to sell would harm everyone. "Absolutely true," he said. "But that 90% represents trillions of dollars owned by everyone else. If you force the top 10% to sell 90% of the market, how close do you think the value owned by the 90% will approach zero? You would wipe out the savings of more than half the country."

Additionally, Cuban noted that billionaires are an inevitable product of developing stock markets, while pointing out that organizations like Oxfam and the World Bank argue that extreme wealth primarily grows through inheritance and monopolistic power, exacerbating inequality.

Cuban also expressed doubts about the practicality of implementing wealth taxes based on stock valuations, asking, "If that’s their stock value, will you issue tax refunds if the market corrects or crashes?"

Despite all these arguments, Cuban supported the implementation of a ‘windfall profits tax’ for individuals with taxable income of $1 billion or more in a year. He also shared his views on how a fairer capitalism could be achieved, suggesting that every worker should have shares equivalent to that of the CEO.