Why did a $154 billion CEO just endorse stripping most Americans of voting rights—and taking us back to the 19th century?

Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, whose company commands a market capitalization near $154 billion, told his social media followers this week that a tax-tiered voting system—one that would strip voting rights from anyone who pays no income tax—would be a “good system.”

That two-word endorsement, dropped into a viral thread, has reignited a debate over wealth, power, and democracy that most Americans thought was settled more than a century ago.

The proposal would invert the founding American principle of “no taxation without representation” into something closer to “no representation without taxation”—and specifically, high taxation. Reactions online split sharply: some framed it as a provocative thought experiment about aligning fiscal responsibility with political voice, while others called it a naked attempt to legitimize plutocracy by giving billionaires and multimillionaires a formal, multiplied vote over the laws that govern everyone else.

But it also revealed that America is grappling with a political economy debate, as a frozen housing market and an entrenched wealthy Baby Boomer demographic have many, not just Lütke, arguing that something big needs to change.

How the thread started

The exchange began with a provocation from Lütke: pension recipients should have their financial futures “locked in and guaranteed,” but........

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