Friend,

Thousands of workers are on strike across the nation demanding liveable
wages, while billionaires like Elon Musk keep having a banner year.

Musk is publicly destroying Twitter in front of our eyes, yet he still
pocketed $95 billion in just the last seven months. Jeff Bezos made $57
billion. Oracle founder Larry Ellison, $37 billion.(1)

All in all, just 500 (mostly) men pocketed $852 billion in the first half
of 2023, averaging $14 million a day for each of them.(2)

How did they do it? By jacking up prices to obscene levels on the rest of
us and squeezing the worker. While these billionaires are pocketing more
money than ever, the average middle class household has lost $33,000 in
wealth so far this year.(3)

[ [link removed] ]It's time for the government to rein in runaway wealth accumulation by
the billionaire class. Sign to tell Congress to pass the OLIGARCH Act.

[ [link removed] ]SIGN ON NOW

Wealth isn't created in a vacuum -- when the billionaires win big, we lose
big.

We are by far the richest country in the world, and there is plenty to go
around, but not when just 500 people are sitting on top of trillions of
dollars.

For far too long we've let billionaires hide in tax shelters while
corporations pay zero taxes. That's how we've ended up with people like
Musk with a bank account the size of a small nation's while 1 out of 2 of
the rest of us don't have $1,000 to cover an emergency.(4) But those
profitting off of our hard work are trying to blame President Biden when
really it's their unethical price increases and worker exploitation
causing the inequity.

That's where Representative Barbara Lee's Oppose Limitless Inequality
Growth and Reverse Community Harms (OLIGARCH Act) comes in.(5) The Act
would put a progressive tax in place for all people whose wealth equals at
least 1,000 times that of the average household, up to 8% for those whose
holdings are 1 million times the average household (like Bezos and Musk).

More important, the Act would provide for audits to ensure that the
billionaires don't hide their money away.

The OLIGARCH Act would help the promise of America -- support for the
working class, paid family leave, and affordable care -- become a reality
while reining in the power of unchecked wealth.

We need to let our representatives know that the vast majority of us want
a real tax on out-of-control billionaires. Will you sign on?

[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll tell my representative to pass the OLIGARCH Act now.

Thank you for joining the fight.

–Irene, along with Angela, Annie, Isidra, Jen, and Lindsay (and the rest
of the Courage team)

[ [link removed] ]SUPPORT THIS CAMPAIGN

Footnotes:
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Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives.

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