Billionaire Mark Cuban: One of the 'most patriotic' things you can do is get 'obnoxiously rich' and pay your taxes

Published Wed, May 15 2019 1:15 PM EDTUpdated Mon, Sep 28 2020 2:10 PM EDT

Catherine Clifford

Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban smiles during the game between the New York Knicks and the Dallas Mavericks at Madison Square Garden on January 30, 2019 in New York City.

Elsa | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

In 2019, Mark Cuban spoke with CNBC's Scott Wapner and left open the possibility that he would run for President.

"It would take the perfect storm for me to do it. There's some things that could open the door, but I'm not projecting or predicting it right now," the billionaire entrepreneur told CNBC.

Yet whether or not he runs, by his own calculation, Cuban has already been of great service to his country — by creating and amassing wealth.

Mark Cuban grew up working class in Pittsburgh, but the tech entrepreneur is now worth $4.1 billion, according to Forbes. He's gotten rich, and that, he says, this is one of the most patriotic things anyone can do.

In May, 2019, Cuban shared a link to a blog post he wrote in 2011 called, "The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do."

"Bust your a-- and get rich," reads the first line of the post.

"Make a boatload of money. Pay your taxes. Lots of taxes. Hire people. Train people. Pay people. Spend money on rent, equipment, services. Pay more taxes," Cuban writes.

"When you make a sh--load of money, do something positive with it. If you are smart enough to make it, you will be smart enough to know where to put it to work," he says.

Cuban, who sold his company Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999 for $5.7 billion in stock, now owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. The billionaire tweeted a link to his 2011 blog post in response to a tweet asking if the billionaire was "scared of paying higher taxes?" (The tweet has since been deleted.)

He is not.

"Profits equal tax money. While some people might find it distasteful to pay taxes. I don't. I find it Patriotic," Cuban writes in the 2011 post. "Get out there and make a boatload of money. Enjoy the sh-- out your money. Pay your taxes. It's the most Patriotic thing you can do." (Cuban has since said that "after military service" paying taxes is the most patriotic thing you can do if you're wealthy.)

Cuban urges people to get so "obnoxiously rich that when that tax bill comes, your first thought will be to choke on how big a check you have to write. Your 2nd thought will be 'what a great problem to have,' and your 3rd should be a recognition that in paying your taxes you are helping to support millions of Americans that are not as fortunate as you."

Cuban's tweet comes at a time when wealth inequality is frequent topic of discussion.

The combined fortunes of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett equals more money than the entire poorest half of the population in the United States has, according to an October report from progressive Washington, D.C.-based think tank Institute for Policy Studies.

And other billionaires have weighed in: Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has said that capitalism is no longer working for most people. Gates and Buffett, on the other hand, see capitalism as the best system but believe the super rich should pay higher tax rates.

As for Cuban, he writes in 2011: "I don't care what anyone says. Being rich is a good thing. Not just in the obvious sense of benefiting you and your family, but in the broader sense. Profits are not a zero sum game. The more you make the more of a financial impact you can have."

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Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."

This story has been updated.

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