A seemingly innocent exchange on X has turned into a full-blown controversy for Tobi Lütke, the German-Canadian co-founder and CEO of Shopify.
For those out of the loop, Shopify is a major e-commerce company which is based in Ottawa.
Lütke has been in his position since April 2008.
The Shopify head was responding to a conversation about capitalism and how some residents were against a tower development in San Francisco. Lütke essentially said pensioners are dependents who shouldn’t get a vote.
New deal: when you get your pension deal it’s locked in and guaranteed. But now you are a dependent and that means no voting, just like dependents under age. Enjoy the deal, let people with a stake in the future decide.
— tobi lutke (@tobi) July 25, 2026
In response to that post from Lütke, another former exec, Eric Thor, offered his own suggestion, saying that if you don’t pay any income tax, you don’t get a vote.
Thor offered a plan that people who earn $100,000 or more get more votes in a tiered system, up to $500,000, for a maximum cap of five votes.
“What about weighted voting proportional to the level of income tax you pay? (no income tax paid – 0 vote, $1-100k – 1 vote, $100-200k 2 votes and so on… cap it at 5 votes for $500k,” Thor wrote.
The Shopify CEO endorsed the idea.
Good system.
— tobi lutke (@tobi) July 26, 2026
While there’s no legal basis for a system like this to exist, it has rightfully ruffled the feathers of residents regarding the interests of billionaires and the wealthy elite.
So he basically thinks rich people have more to rights. He’s such a prick
— Pistol Pete (@pedro_p1stol) July 26, 2026
A Reddit post on the Canada subreddit got over 100 comments before the post was removed.
“A multi-billionaire endorsing extra votes for rich people, and taking away the vote from unemployed people… very convenient,” someone commented on the Reddit post.
“So he wants a society where only the rich control everything,” said another comment in response.
He dug his heels in further in response to another comment on X.
5 max. Or make it go back to 1 above a certain level, doesn’t matter. Reward productive people with leverage
— tobi lutke (@tobi) July 26, 2026
“It’s not enough that I have everything, everyone else must also have nothing”
— linda belcher (@brwngrlkaren) July 27, 2026
As of this post, Lütke has not issued a statement nor retracted his comment. We’ve contacted Shopify for comment.