Is Florida’s Population Disappearing? Billionaires Are Betting On It.
Florida’s economy is rigged for the mega-rich and is pricing everyone else out.
We went to the private billionaire island where Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos escape taxes.
Working Floridians pay $13 of every $100 they earn in state taxes, while the richest pay under $3.
Host & Producer: Natasha Del Toro
Video Editor: Eric Schuman
Videographers:
Spencer Molenda
Jose Zaragoza
Max Maldonado
Chris Connell
Motion Designer: Gerald Lane
Video Production Manager: Isabel Atalaya
Video Production Coordinator: Jodi Clemens
Video Production Fellow: Astrid Dong
Video Editing Fellow: Daria Nastasia
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@jamesmcloughlin8534
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
Your idea of the Florida of old was always a Potemkin Village of living, read Robert W Fieseler’s “American Scare:” Florida’s hidden Cold War on Black and Queer lives. Governor DeSantis is just the latest in scapegoating and favoritism of who gets what, and by what means.
@houstongigs
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
That last frame with a glimpse at a yacht named EBITDA is all you need to know about the wealthy who take advantage of a tax code designed for them 😅
@99CandyfFlip99
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
10:10 also, the number of billionaires in florida is still much lower than the number of non billionaires.
@99CandyfFlip99
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
10:10 looooool the total is still much higher than the "low income" also, the flow of wealth has different roots, so it is only logical. By the way, works everywhere like that, not just in florida 🙂
@99CandyfFlip99
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
I just shaved my hair. Your math doesn't add up, im now going into it and texting you here.
@JamesonBrandon
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
stop making it right vs left, cut that out! They are ALL on the same team
@Picxalate
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
So basically Florida is a criminal Billionaire/Millionaire hub
@MG-jd6kt
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
So when does the revolution happen? Billionaires are preparing, it’s forever been the cycle of humanity – people hoard too much, then those people have their wealth redistributed.
@cornbreadth
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
anger! don’t understand what makes these people worthy of this level of wealth. never going to spend it all in several life spans. i hate them and their entitlement.
@quarterhounder
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
all these people are united by selfishness and greed- at least in california people are united by wanting to look out for their fellow californian and will willingly pay more taxes to pay for public services
@Rock-Bottem1982
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
The most hypocritical, and evil, and greedy, and power hungry, group of people who are screaming climate change fear telling us that the oceans are rising faster than ever. They tell s everyone who lives by the coast to move further inland now, while at the sametime they're buying/building homes that are in the 8 figure, and 9 figure, even 10 figure price range mansions in the coastal State that will be effected with rising sea levels first.
The whole purpose of this climate change scam is to usher in more and more laws that takeaway even more of our freedoms, and to raise,x and add new weekly/bi-weekly federal/state taxes that will effect 90% of the population. These climate change taxes will rival if not exceed federal tax.
@SusanSwarts-k1q
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
They can afford the insurance. They'll need it.
@KG-rn8cy
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
Bernie been saying it for decades. No regulation, no workers' rights, unlimited privatisation, no taxes = an absolute sh**show for the majority. Yet Florida is still a Republican state. Wake up people!
@JamesBarry-t6q
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
Florida's going to have to bring back income tax they have major expenses that they've been putting off the seawall around Miami the Parkways need to be all upgraded sewage and water treatment plants
@egx161
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
Florida will be underwater one day because of climate change.
@GearysGarage-h6s
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
.. have these same entities taken note of the global weather (let alone environmental) changes? the southeast of the u.s. (among other ocean level areas) are due to catch the worst of it .. hmmm, guess one will see; and yes, perhaps just my opinion .. regards, Geary
@d34dly5
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
you forgot to mention how trump has drastically reduced foreign tourism to the US, and how that is devastating to Florida's economy.
@mrbigfellanz
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
When a billionaire says 'but I'll leave' I say "okay travel and forincate then, the sooner the better"
@nemanjaivanovic5973
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
Of course, “trickle down economics” was shown repeatedly not to work. Modern capitalist economies are much more akin to capillary action. Wealth flows up through thousands of little channels (the less wealthy) towards the main trunk (the oligarchs).
@GirtonOramsay
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
Being from Florida, I remember giving up on trying to get food stamps or unemployment after seeing the BS work requirements. If I live in a red state now, I just assume that I'm on my own if I lose my job and the state will offer zero social benefits when you might need them. It's the polar opposite in California where I could get food stamps as soon as I lost my job and use them in a lot more places like restaurants to get hot meals…
@dj866-a
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
The problem with a wealth tax is that the revenue is unpredictable, so ideas like California's proposal to fund public health insurance will run out of money as soon as there's an economic downturn. That's why states and cities love property taxes and fees–they may be "regressive," but they're reliable, so you get more for your money. 13% isn't that far off from what poor families pay in Oregon and California, but they don't exactly get Western European-level benefits for that money. Meanwhile, the middle class takes home a lot less money than they would in Florida but still have to deal with the same rising costs.
@AZ-vt4zz
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
I guess we just sit and suffer while we wait for the rich to blindly self destruct.
@miamijak1
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
This is the reason for doing away with property taxes. The rich is fucking Florida residents. At least we know where they live.
@ComDocH
July 16, 2026 at 6:32 am
We need an army of Luigis.