Hacker News Reader

Comment by epistasis | Hacker News Reader

This would also jack up the prices a huge amount, wealth is anything that people want where there's not enough to go around.

By keeping people out, this will actually increase the scarcity and drive up "prices" even more. Your "big sum of money" acknowledges as much.

So this is a terrible, unfair idea. And if we were to ever implement such a scheme, the only way to make it remotely fair would to heavily heavily tax this wealth, perhaps by charging existing residents a highly monthly rent to stay, and for those that get a grandfathered-in prize, they should have to pay a large amount of capital gains.

View on HN

The prices of the passports would go up, yes, but the prices of property would go down.

Prices for whom? Only those born into this wealth, or those who have wealth by other means.

It's a recipe for even more massive inequality.

People from out of state. The native Californians would not have to pay, since they already live there.

Exactly, those who have been born into wealth have a gilded life, while the rest of the states struggle.

I think it's important to remember that California's wealth comes not from internally, but from externally. By exporting the goods from labor in the state, labor that is largely the result of immigrants into the state, California is leading the way to a more environmentally friendly path, with greater wealth, for all of humanity.

Wishing to cut that off because of a few conservative "native born" Californians don't want to see apartment buildings is the height of foolishness and greed.

A lot of California’s wealth comes from its vast natural resources, including some of the most desirable weather and topography in the world. This will, on its own, attract investment from richer entities. It is also a prime beneficiary of imports from Asian due to its ports in prime location on the Pacific Ocean.

Water supply issues notwithstanding, which could easily change California’s intrinsic desirability.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com