Shopify首席执行官托比亚斯·卢特克在社交媒体上表示支持按税收等级划分投票权的制度[1]。根据卢特克所倡导的方案，不缴纳所得税者将获得零票投票权，年收入1万至10万美元的人群获得1票，投票权随收入增长逐级递增，年收入50万美元及以上人群最多可获得5票[1]。这一制度将直接剥夺社会保障领取者、学生、照顾者、残疾人和低薪工人等群体的投票权[1]。
这一言论引发了关于财富、权力与民主制度的广泛讨论[1]。批评者认为这代表权贵政治的体现，而支持者则将其框架化为财政责任与政治权力相平衡的问题[1]。值得注意的是，卢特克曾在2022年获得Shopify股东批准的创始人股份结构安排，使其拥有至少40%的公司投票权，这一比例与其实际股权比例无关[1]。按财产资格投票的制度曾在19世纪欧洲和早期美国广泛存在，后来在20世纪的普遍选举权运动中被推翻[1]。
Tobias Lütke, chief executive of Shopify, has publicly endorsed a voting system that would allocate electoral power based on tax brackets [1]. Under the proposed structure Lütke supports, individuals who pay no federal income tax would receive zero votes, those earning between $1 and $10 in annual income would receive one vote, with voting power increasing incrementally up to five votes for those earning $500,000 or more per year [1].
The endorsement has ignited significant controversy over wealth, power, and democratic principles. The system would effectively disenfranchise social security recipients, students, caregivers, disabled Americans, and low-wage workers [1]. Critics view the proposal as a manifestation of plutocratic governance, while some supporters frame it as a mechanism to balance fiscal responsibility with political influence. Notably, Lütke himself secured a founder share structure approved by Shopify shareholders in 2022 that guarantees him at least 40 percent of the company's voting power regardless of his actual equity stake [1].
Such property-qualified voting systems were widespread in nineteenth-century Europe and early America before being dismantled by twentieth-century movements for universal suffrage [1].