Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday evening criticized a Democratic tax proposal that would target American billionaires to fund a safety net expansion, saying it represented the start of a new campaign from Democrats to redistribute wealth from the richest Americans. “Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you,” he wrote on Twitter. In a separate tweet, Musk said any government-induced reallocation of wealth would be better managed by the private sector. “Who is best at capital allocation — government or entrepreneurs — is indeed what it comes down to,” he wrote on Twitter. “The tricksters will conflate capital allocation with consumption.”
And, to put that in perspective:
…Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the richest people in the world, have been able to get away with paying zero dollars and zero cents in income taxes in some years, and, in the case of Musk, a laughable $68,000 in 2015 and $65,000 in 2017.
I do not like paying taxes anymore than the next person. But I understand them and why we need them and why we all should pay them. That I pay more in taxes than Bezos and Musk should be criminal.
Fuck Musk and his ilk for not paying their taxes and doubly fuck him for complaining that he should. He has waaaaay more money than he can spend in a lifetime no matter how luxuriously he lives. I am missing what his real problem is.
These ideas of giving the richest in the world big tax breaks really became acceptable in the Reagan era and has only gotten worse. IMHO, one of the biggest problems in society today is the average person has trouble making ends meet in large part because the 1% isn’t paying their fair share.
Your idea of fair must be different from mine. I do not want the federal government making special taxes ‘just for the super rich’. It’s not fair, and history tells us those taxes always creep downward.
Musk is probably forgetting the $500 million loan Tesla got as part of the bail out package in 2009. I’m sure he’ll be happy to pay his fair share after he’s reminded that taxpayers help keep his head above water.
Then you agree with Elon Musk, because the proposal Musk is talking about is for a special ‘super rich’ tax on capital assets. It’s a special tax that you and I would not be subject to (at least not at first).
I have the impression that Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg are friends and have made each other richer. As the Spanish saying goes, God makes them all and the Devil puts them together. This thread should be in the Pit for me to be able to write what I think about those individuals and what I wish for them, let me just say that it could well involve Clostridium botulinum, Yersinia pestis and Vibrio cholerae.
Peter Thiel also financed SpaceX and Tesla, and Facebook. And is obsessed with evading taxes. He is a right wing anarchist, that is to say, an elitist fascist. That is just for starters.
The fix for “government gives $500 million load to Tesla but didn’t get anything back” is to not give giant government loans to companies. Or tie them to payback requirements. Or, you can argue that the value to the country of having the company exist is sufficient to justify the expense.
You can not use that as an excuse to take part of Musk’s personal fortune.
Again, that is an argument against government subsidies, not in favor of taxing Musk.
I’m surprised you’ve paid $68k in taxes in a single year your clearly close to the 1%.
I’ve got no problem with Musk not paying taxes most year Tesla just posted its first quarter of making money from selling cars. SpaceX is at best break even so it would surprise me if he had capital losses most years over the last 10-15.
I’ve got no problem taxing cap gains as regular income subject to inflation and their cost basis. I hope it doesn’t happen soon but I’m resigned to it. If also prefer to see a lower tax rate and the removal of all loop hole from the cold tax credit to the mortgage interest deduction and 401ks and IRA.
