
Billionaire Mark Cuban has been speaking out on social media, arguing that wealthy people should get targeted incentives to help others, while critics are asking why similar incentives aren't offered to the working class.
Cuban's Incentives For The Rich
Cuban recently argued on Bluesky that policy decisions have ripple effects, warning, "Think the 60% of Americans with stocks or retirement funds will like it when their savings crash? The layoffs when companies close and investment slows down considerably?"
Cuban, who has long said he is fine with raising his own income taxes, proposed lowering corporate taxes for companies paying at least $25 per hour or giving employees stock at the same percentage as the CEO. "Bottom up incentives work. Dems never innovate. They bitch," he wrote.
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That drew sharp criticism. One person replied, "It's always been funny how the rich need to be incentivized but the working class needs to be disciplined." The comment ratioed what Cuban wrote, meaning it received more engagement than Cuban's original post. They also questioned why Cuban would make this case so soon after a large corporate tax cut was passed, calling it tone-deaf, adding that many companies work to push wages as low as possible, undermining his claims about innovation.
Defending Trump's Semiconductor Tax Structure
Cuban also recently posted on X about a Trump policy imposing what he called a "billionaire's tax" on semiconductor sales to China from the most valuable company in the world, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). He credited Trump for using business leverage to get companies to pay, something he said progressives have failed to do.
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"POTUS is more progressive when it comes to taxation than anyone in the progressive wing of the Dems has ever been. The Dems should be celebrating just how progressive it is. The irony," Cuban wrote. While he disagrees with Trump on tariffs and most non-business issues, he called the move "the ultimate wealth tax" because it diluted all shareholders by 15% upfront.
Cuban estimated the measure will result in Nvidia paying about $4 billion per year, connected to roughly $25 billion in high-margin revenue. He stressed that while it won't fix the deficit, it shows how targeting what wealthy companies need can result in significant tax revenue.
Cuban's comments tie together a recurring theme in his public statements: using incentives to drive behavior. Whether it's corporate tax breaks for companies that pay higher wages, leveraging business needs to generate revenue from billionaires, or teaching his children to earn their own way, Cuban repeatedly comes back to the idea that motivation should come through opportunity rather than punishment.
Still, the pushback shows that many people believe those same incentives should apply to working-class Americans, not just the wealthy.
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