Elon Musk says it's 'dumb' to call billionaires the bad guys
Source: CNN
Elon Musk, the world's richest man, said on Twitter Thursday that billionaires aren't the bad guys.
Musk tweeted that it is "morally wrong & dumb" to use the word billionaire as a pejorative if that person is using their wealth to create products that make "millions of people happy."
[snip]
Musk ran a Twitter poll, asking his 95 million followers who they trust less: politicians or billionaires. As of midday Friday, three-quarters of the 2.8 million respondents said they had less trust for politicians.
He then tagged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who recently told Bloomberg she wanted to replace her Tesla with an EV made by a company that supports unionization. Musk dared the Democratic congresswoman to run the same poll with her own followers. Musk has largely opposed unionization for Tesla in the past.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/27/business/elon-musk-billionaires-tweet/index.html
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Response to groundloop (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
BigmanPigman
(55,527 posts)He used the system to get a great education, etc and ever since then he nas been pulling the ladder up. He is a user, a loser and an incredible asshole. Whether or not he is GQP, Libertarian or a former Dem (sure) doesn't matter. He's a jackass whose opinion I value less than a rock's opinion. 
Mr. Evil
(3,472 posts)Don't stop there! Keep going!
Just another spoiled rotten piece of shit who thinks he's special because he was plopped out on 3rd base. Fucking asshole! GFY Elon!
2Gingersnaps
(1,000 posts)Like it's equally moronic to equate human value to a pile of cash no matter how that pile was come by or how it is used. "All that glitters if gold" is among the most deceitful conceits.
mysteryowl
(9,350 posts)
Warpy
(114,674 posts)an by that I mean employing tax lawyers and accountants f0r whom it's a game to see how little tax the big guy can pay.
I mean giving bundled corporate "campaign donations" in the millions to corrupt bastards in Congress who will allow them to underpay their employees year after year while voting against social programs that compensate for that.
I mean getting sweetheart laws written into everything from the tax code to environmental regulations to state and local taxes in exchange for greasing the palms of men well known to be corrupt so those men will stay in office.
And mostly I mean thinking they're any better than the low wage worker who empties their trash cans at night because we are all supposed to be equal before the law and it's high fucking time the law acted like it.
Musk is a seriously mixed bag who has done some remarkable things, like getting an electric car with decent range and that people want to drive off the drawing board and inot production, rebuilding a children's hospital after the big hurricane devastated Puerrto Rico and having it run on solar power and his batteries since the grid was destroyed, and his Space X program. I don't doubt his brilliance or his compassion, at least when an engineering problem interests him. It's just high time he realizes where he's living and commits to supporting the country that allowed him to become so rich.
I say that to all the other billionaires, most of whom are both far less talented and far less compassionate.
Shermann
(9,072 posts)Billionaires like Musk aren't generally resting on their laurels. He's focused on building his brand and developing the EV market (among many other things). He has a lead on the major car manufacturers, but they are gaining ground. He is not in a position to change tax policy, so he is playing the cards he's been dealt while trying to maintain that lead. That involves bending the rules that he and his competitors have to follow without breaking them. That means moving from a blue state to a red state. Outmaneuvering Detroit and Big Oil is no small task. He could tackle other world problems with the resources he has, but those aren't his thing. He should be supported by the left for doing exactly what he is doing.
Hekate
(100,133 posts)Pun intended.
Zuckerberg is a schmuck. The Kochs are scary. Bezos is highly questionable, but his ex-wife is giving away her alimony almost as fast as it comes in.
Soros is a friend of ours. Buffett is willing for his class to be taxed.
And did I mention that Musk emits a foul odor? Yes I did. Plus he seems to be emotionally unstable, which must be alarming to his investors. “Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”
oldsoftie
(13,538 posts)FUCK HIM & his hedge fund with their short selling to break foreign banks & their tax avoidance.
Trash the tax code & start over to make these fuckers pay at least SOMETHING.
Mosby
(19,491 posts)So maybe dial it back a bit.
oldsoftie
(13,538 posts)It doesnt matter if he's on "my side"; his actions are WRONG. But I'm sure he's profited well by buying as many politicians as possible. Might explain why he's gotten away with not paying anything so many time. And why no laws are ever passed to stop him and his kind, GOP & Dem alike, from making the billions they make using underhanded tactics that hurt the average person.
Cozmo
(1,402 posts)So what, he's a greedy billionaire. Who cares?
LudwigPastorius
(15,006 posts)You know what else would make millions of people happy?
Tax Musk's net worth at 99% and distribute that money to every man, woman, and child in the United States.
He'd still be a billionaire, and 329.5 million people would each have a check for 655 bucks.
unblock
(56,262 posts)but the problem is not the delivery of the goods and services, which by the way is the result of the hard work of many people, not just the billionaire at the top.
the problem -- well, problems -- are everything else that happens.
not sharing the money fairly with the rest of the team that produces the goods and services.
not paying reasonable taxes
not paying adequate attention to the safety of workers and consumers
not protecting third parties from ill effects of your business, such as pollution (raiding the commons)
not allowing fair competition that might keep prices fair and stimulate healthy competition
deceptive advertising
etc.
it is effectively *impossible* to be ultra-wealthy without both legitimately earning money by brining goods and services to market *and* illegitimately gaining money by a number of unfair practices that basically just take wealth from other people, be it workers, creditors, other investors, governments, competitors, or the people who are unfortunate enough to live downstream from your plants.
people don't have a problem with the delivery of useful goods and services part. people *do* have a problem with all the other ways billionaires enrich themselves at the expense of others.
Baked Potato
(7,733 posts)I don’t think the poor misunderstood billionaires need your help.
LudwigPastorius
(15,006 posts)just beyond the comprehension of serfs like us.
IronLionZion
(51,554 posts)that's for someone else of course.
Kind of like who's to say you're not mentally ill? Would a mentally ill person know they are too mentally ill to buy guns?
rockfordfile
(8,742 posts)
RFCalifornia
(440 posts)If you have a dollar above $1B you are a HOARDER
Response to RFCalifornia (Reply #49)
Mosby This message was self-deleted by its author.
Bluethroughu
(7,215 posts)Or owned by one.
Tax the rich because it's their patriotic duty to pay their fair share!
Ziggysmom
(4,158 posts)Overpriced crap.
C Moon
(13,738 posts)
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)
pecosbob
(8,493 posts)
betsuni
(29,295 posts)caused by money, as if money automatically corrupts everyone and everything is about economics.
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)
OverBurn
(1,292 posts)He is not a super guinness like most seem to think. He was borned super rich. His daddy gave him money to start his first company with his brother. They sold it during the dot com boom in the 90's. He has made few wise moves and some very lucky timely moves.
He has made most of his money off the backs of the truly smart people working for him and took credit for it.
rpannier
(24,956 posts)Si Tacuisses, philosophus mansisses. - If you had been silent, you would have remained a philosopher.
TexasBushwhacker
(21,289 posts)One of the key symptoms of Asperger's is a lack of empathy. He simply doesn't even try to look at the world through other people's eyes because he is unable to. So he is against unions because he thinks it will hurt him, without looking at how it might benefit his workers. This lack of empathy comes off as narcissism.
That is not to say that I think the world of Musk. I think he could probably use a handler of some sort to keep him from coming off as such a selfish asshole. But at the end of the day, I trust Musk more than I trust Trump and his minions.
2naSalit
(103,811 posts)That is all.
ToxMarz
(3,069 posts)As in asking HIS followers 'Who do you trust more, ME or politicians?'
Bless his little heart
myohmy2
(3,723 posts)...anyone to have that much economic, political and social power is undemocratic...
...every trillion these capitalist pigs are allowed to accumulate is less money society has for police, fire responders, schools, roads, military, etc.
...call it scour grapes if you like, but I don't like billionaires who are now soon to become trillionaires...
...they cost our society more than we ever benefit from allowing them to accumulate that much power and wealth...
...we're nuts...
turbinetree
(27,735 posts)in taxes on earned income or stock trades....8.2%.....report from 2021......so basically go pound sand.....and then you have the balls' to whine....
https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2021/09/23/new-omb-cea-report-billionaires-pay-an-average-federal-individual-income-tax-rate-of-just-8-2/#:~:text=The%20analysis%20from%20OMB%20and,taxes%20between%202010%20and%202018.
patphil
(9,230 posts)It's what a person says and does that defines them. So, I mistrust some politicians, and some billionaires.
What Musky put out was pretty much a BS poll. These people wouldn't be following him if they didn't like him.
It was like a rigged election.
Iggo
(50,059 posts)
ck4829
(38,093 posts)Crowman2009
(3,600 posts)Master_Monstruwacan
(71 posts)...how about you GFY. No one cares what you have to say, you arrogant self-righteous billionaire prick.
twodogsbarking
(19,353 posts)
Joinfortmill
(21,669 posts)
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,940 posts)bad guy. I sure wouldnt care! I would just try hard to be a good guy, to use a significant portion of my wealth for the greater good, share with loved ones, leave large tips, and then enjoy the rest of it myself on experiences and things that make me happy.
Martin68
(28,072 posts)
Skittles
(172,885 posts)so fucking NEEDY
niyad
(134,035 posts)
usaf-vet
(7,859 posts)Make it easy for the pro-gun control folks to AFFORD the battle that counters the millions if not billions from dark money sources to kill gun legislation.
Yes buy the key politicians if that is what it takes to win. Because that is apparently what it takes to keep sensible gun legislation from happening now.
Now for the high-tech toy possible solution. You know you like those challenges.
Here is a high-tech idea. Let me start by saying I don't have all the answers. But we have all seen videos of drones that are flown from a military base in the U.S. and attack and destroy enemy targets on the other side of the world. We know that you have designed and are launching a satellite system to deliver internet service to rural areas. We have all seen robots used by bomb squads to seek out and disarm bombs.
How about designing school robot drones that can reside in each school and be deployed from a remote central location with trained "pilots". Robots with lethal weapons that can hunt down identify, isolate an active shooter, and under the right circumstances eliminate the threat. It could assist swat teams by giving them intel from inside about the shooter and the shooter's location.
I know it sounds like sci-fi but not too many years ago launching a rocket into space and having it safely return and land in a vertical position for the next launch was how rockets in Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon days worked. It took 70 years or more for Elon Musk to make it a reality.
Be the man who made schools safe for kids. Buy the legislation and build the high tech gadgets that work.
AntiFascist
(13,756 posts)including those who believe that they have the sole right to run how the world works, much in the same way that Musk runs Tesla and its employees. This is essentially anti-democratic.
Snellius
(6,881 posts)The idea of electric vehicles, self-driving cars, reusable rockets have been around a long time. He is not a Tesla. Or even an Edison. He's a self-promoting entrepreneur who makes a better light bulb and boasts he invented electricity, the godfather of the fake-it-till-you-make-it crypto world, marketing itself as product, hedge fund manipulator who thinks he's Steve Jobs, golden promise with false-gold results. Self-driving cars that don't. Teslas that spontaneously combust. Reusable rockets that aren't. Eventually the illusionary bubble pops.
ck4829
(38,093 posts)ck4829
(38,093 posts)Wonder Why
(7,235 posts)There are much better words like
Sleazy, greedy, lowlife, uncaring, amoral, lying, dishonest, evil, abhorrent, foul, loathsome, revolting, atrocious, rotten, nauseating, beastly, distasteful, hateful, vile, ...
Know what the difference is between a thief and a philanthropist?
A thief steals. A philanthropist steals then gives half of what's left back when he/she gets old.
Polybius
(22,120 posts)Many are evil, some are dumb, and some are actually pretty awesome human beings.
RFCalifornia
(440 posts)Every dollar made after $1B should be spent on the homeless
Carlitos Brigante
(26,848 posts)LiberalFighter
(53,544 posts)Earth-shine
(4,044 posts)
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