Gen Z believes in the billionaire tax

More than two-thirds of Generation Z thinks wealthy Americans should pay up.

A new CBS/YouGov poll released Sunday found that 69 percent of respondents under 30 favor candidates who support raising taxes on wealthy Americans.

That’s a higher rate than among millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers, though majorities in older age categories also back higher taxes on the wealthy.  

In comparison, 59 percent of respondents aged 30 to 44 and 55 percent of Americans aged 45 and older said the same. 

The new polling also found that Gen Z participants were least likely to say a candidate’s stance on taxing the wealthy was irrelevant. Only 12 percent of respondents under 30 said it “would not matter either way,” lower than Americans aged 30 to 44 (19 percent), 45 to 64 (21 percent) and 65 plus (22 percent).

That suggests a number of Gen Z voters want candidates to back taxing the wealthy.

William Gale, the Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller chair in federal economic policy at the Brookings Institution, told The Hill there are some obvious reasons why such taxes might appeal to Gen Z. 

He noted that Gen Z was “hit by COVID and the global financial crisis and the student loans and housing shortages,” challenges he sees as fueling a wish for a tax system that hits the wealthy harder.

The results arrive ahead of midterm elections in November when the House and Senate majorities are in play and tax issues are at the center of the discussion.

Polling on California’s Proposition 40, which would levy a one-time 5 percent tax on the net worth of the state’s 200 billionaires, shows voters split nearly down the middle. 

But Gen Z is not so divided. One survey found that 75 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 plan to vote in favor of the initiative.

“I think the idea of taxing the rich has a lot of support in the abstract, as you’re seeing in these surveys. It’s a different thing, though, to get a........

© The Hill