(Business Insider) Sen. Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax forms a key plank of her fiercely populist presidential campaign - and her soak-the-rich approach is electrifying voters eager to curb the gaping income inequality within American society.
Warren's proposal would impose a 2 percent tax on households with net worths over $50 million and increase it to six percent on those with fortunes above $1 billion. It was recently ramped-up to help pay for her new Medicare for All plan to provide universal healthcare to every person in the United States.
Assuming no appreciation or depreciation on their listed net worth, here's how long it would take for some of America's most famous billionaires to lose their billionaire status, according to new research from the Bespoke Investment Group, a financial market research firm:
- Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ($110 billion): 76 years, or around the average lifespan of an American male.
- Mark Zuckerberg ($70.3 billion): 69 years
- Elon Musk ($23 billion): 51 years
- President Donald Trump ($3.1 billion): 19 years
- Oprah Winfrey ($2.7 billion): 17 years
- Michael Jordan ($1.9 billion): 11 years
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been especially vocal in his criticism of Warren. In leaked audio, he slammed her plan to break up big tech companiesand said Facebook was ready to "go to the mat and fight" off government regulation.
In recent weeks, financial titans on Wall Street and other corporate leaders have sounded the alarm about her candidacy, anxious that her slate of plans to restructure the national economy could drastically hit their earnings.
Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman has repeatedly rebuked Warren's rhetoric in recent weeks. They've sparred over the presidential hopeful's economic plans, which substantially hit the rich and corporations with new taxes to fund her progressive initiatives like student debt relief and universal childcare.
"I don't need Elizabeth Warren telling me that I'm a deadbeat and that billionaires are deadbeats," Cooperman told CNBC on Monday. "The vilification of billionaires makes no sense to me."
The hedge-fund manager later said: "This is idiocy! It's appealing to the lowest common denominator and basically trying to turn people's heads around by promising a lot of free stuff."
Warren didn't let Cooperman have the last word.
The Massachussetts senator shot back in a Monday night tweet: "One thing I know he cares about - his fortune," referring to Cooperman's net-worth of $3.2 billion that he's pledged to give to charity.
In a follow-up tweet, she said, "I care about making sure every American has the opportunity to succeed. I'm not afraid to stand up to the wealthy and well-connected."
