discuss it here, btw my stance is basically: gagging opposing side bad, and no, that doesn't mean the opposing side is going to be righteous or anything but they should be allowed to talk, you can always just ignore them if you wish.
He should put that shithole of a platform out of its misery already.
I'm still unsure why a single individual is allowed to have 44 billion USD to their name
↩ Folfy_Blue What alternative would you propose?
↩ Folfy_Blue btw this is unrelated but is your profile some merging of a human, dog, and stitch from lilo & stitch
"Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in" - elon musk
tesla stock dropped 40 usd
↩ RedEastWood Probably taxes proportional to income (Like steps? From x to y, we tax xx of your income, from y to z, we tax yy of your income, from z to α, zz% etc..), alongside a heavy tax on wealth upon reaching a certain threshold. I'm not an economist by any means so I'm not within my domain here, but such sums of money shouldn't be spent all in one guy's pocket.
(Also, for reference on how much a billion is, you could give yourself 27 378USD every single day of your life for 100 years before running out of money)
↩ Folfy_Blue (Also, for reference on how much a billion is, you could give yourself 27 378USD every single day of your life for 100 years before running out of money)
And there are people that have MULTIPLE billions of dollars...
At least if people sustained this comical wealth without abusing low employee pay and exploiting regulations...
↩ @'Miasmus.' I'd like to add, with 44 billion you could give yourself a whopping 1 204 654 USD every single day for one hundred year
↩ @'anemone' He earnt it
What would you define as earning? Elon Musk had to manage Tesla for maybe a few years before it started running itself, and it's not like he does any labor there... (Not to mention he didn't found Tesla either)
The problem is that the effort to earn monies doesn't go up but goes down with wealth, so rich people just get richer without working for the money.
↩ @'anemone' ride his rockets
Who is riding his rockets 😭
↩ Folfy_Blue Probably taxes proportional to income (Like steps? From x to y, we tax xx of your income, from y to z, we tax yy of your income, from z to α, zz% etc..)
If I understand this correctly, this is already how the UK taxation system works. We have tax bands, you pay the % of tax for that specific tax band. Wealthy earners are taxed a whopping 40%.
↩ Folfy_Blue alongside a heavy tax on wealth upon reaching a certain threshold.
What if Elon, the person who worked for this money (im sure you’ve heard stories of his work ethic), does not want to share his money? Should he have no say in this?
I agree that it is an insane amount of money for just one person to have, but had someone else exploited and foresaw the rise of internet payments (PayPal), and space exploration (spacex), they would have been just as successful. In the same way, right now people should be focusing on innovating artificial intelligence as that is the future.
↩ @'anemone' you can’t say he doesn’t deserve it.. just because he’s rich. That’s poor mentality
Nobody here thinks Elon does not deserve it (or so i think). He definitely deserves the money. The question is about whether he should be allowed to have such a staggering amount of money.
↩ @'anemone' He was some poor guy who got rich
Not taking away from his business acumen or anything but his mother was a model and his father was a property developer in his spare time who owned half of an emerald mine. Not exactly starting from rags. Fantastic businessman sure but he was never poor.
I’ll be honest I don’t know that much about the musky boi other than that he is responsible for spaceX which has done some great things, and also that he is the Tesla guy, and I think Tesla’s are pretty cool so yeah
↩ Folfy_Blue The word you're looking for is a progressive tax system.
where is the epic option?
What if Elon, the person who worked for this money (im sure you’ve heard stories of his work ethic), does not want to share his money? Should he have no say in this?
Do you have a say in how much you pay in taxes besides your own vote in elections…?
↩ @'anemone'
"We had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe".
\~ Errol Musk
Everything is relative.
↩ Miwojedk I do not pay “real” taxes yet (income tax, capital gains etc).
I do not have a say in how much tax I pay, but I read the Exchequer’s red box every year and understand why taxes are the way they are. People who complain about the taxation assume the government has infinite money to solve hard-hitting problems (such as the post covid recovery we are facing now, or Ukraine). I accept that some governments overcharge for no good reason, but I believe mine does not.
The difference is though, taxes are paid for collective gain and gain that I can see with my own eyes. I do not mind paying taxes because the city I live in is well developed, the country is well-funded and first world. Elon’s wealth is not comparable because if he did choose to give money away, it would not benefit him at all. He doesn’t owe anyone anything at the end of the day - I’m sure when he was not a billionaire this same discussion was going on. Incredibly wealthy people aren’t new and the sentiment of collective wealth is hardly new either, education and political awareness has just shot it into main discussions.
My overall point is that your alluding to my inability to decide my taxes is the same as Elon’s inability to choose what to do with his money is not a good comparison. I also made the point that this conversation has been going on for centuries , and that nothing will realistically change.
To be honest I don't think Elon or any billionaires should be forced to give away more money than they are legally bound to - that being said, I find that it is morally disgusting that people can have so much money that it just becomes a abstract number, and yet refuse to give away such amounts to charity (For billionares+, I'd imagine sums ~ 50% of their wealth). I'm not going to burn the rich, but I'm not going to respect them for what they do. (Not to say that they don't do some impressive shit)
↩ @'Miasmus.' (For billionares+, I’d imagine sums \~ 50% of their wealth)
This is a common misconception. Billionaires do not have their wealth in cash. Neither do millionaires (most of them at least?). Their money is tied up in stocks, bonds, investments, properties, etc. In order to liquidate (convert those things into payable cash), someone else needs to buy them. We are therefor put in the exact same situation as before.
For certain savings products such as stocks, bonds and investments, these can be transferred to other people. The issue still remains of actually selling the stocks (which requires someone else to buy them).
Furthermore, the majority (?) of Elon’s wealth is tied up in Tesla and SpaceX stock. Giving away or liquidating this stock will almost certainly tank his company on NASDAQ.
It’s a lot more difficult than just “oh give away half of your wealth”.
↩ RedEastWood Good point. I can agree that 50% is pretty ludicrous when not only including liquid assets, however I have also noticed that Elon reportedly payed himself for part of the Twitter share - 21 billion dollars. Could be reading this wrong, but wouldn't this mean he has at least that much money available immediately, and most likely much more which he could use for charity? Maybe my requirements were a bit absurd, but I think my point still stands, especially because IMO companies are less important that helping a lot of people, although this could be debated depending on what the company does.
