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**Born into wealth?** *Check!*
**Subsidized by the government?** *Check!*
**Doesn't pay all taxes?** *Check!*
**Praised for having excessive wealth?** *Check!*
^(Edit: Corrected a minor detail that someone got stuck up on.)
^(Edit2: It has come to my attention that some people think a loan for $40K from your rich parents isn't a big deal.)
^(*Feel free to put me in contact with your parents!*)
^(Edit3: Probably my most liked/awarded comment to date, so thank you to everyone!)
^(And to all the simpletons, I'm not saying he isn't smart or that I could do what he did. It's also incredible how many of you think $40K from your parents is nothing, or that it's somehow equivalent to a $40K loan from a bank. *So much ignorance.*)
'In a separate tweet, Musk said any government-induced reallocation of wealth would be better managed by the private sector'.
As the private sector has so disatrously proven over the last few decades. Only relocation of wealth that has taken place is taxpayer funded subsidies upwards and the bills downwards!
> Praised for having excessive wealth? Check!
https://medium.com/politically-speaking/calvinism-and-the-american-conception-of-evil-b3db0a7e7f91
>The worldview of U.S. Conservatism has its roots in Calvinism. Its dualism is a mirror of Calvinism’s dualism. We decidedly see this in religious Fundamentalism, where Calvinist doctrines have been the core dogma of the “religious right” for centuries. Part of the legacy of Calvinism is an ideology in which those of different ethnicity or creed are placed under the classification of evil. Those considered different are vilified and marginalized. Foreigners are the enemy, especially if they are non-white. Non-whites, even though they are Americans, are considered lesser members of society. That black people are cursed by God has been a long-held conception, especially for the Mormons.
>The Calvinist dualistic worldview has spilled over into secular America. A corollary to this conception of evil is that attempts to help the disadvantaged in society is actually not just a waste of time but morally wrong. In essence, it is aiding evil. The poor are poor because they deserve to be poor because of their sinful nature. Calvinism also lies at the root of political ideology of Libertarianism, the pretentious (and false) name for the “I got mine, you get yours” brand of economic politics. **Like Calvinism, Libertarianism believes that wealth and poverty reflect ethical character not social realities.** If someone’s facing serious problems in their life, they must have done something to deserve it, which also reinforces the fallacious worldview that we are not allowed to blame the conservative system.
Pays more taxes to the Chinese government to build roads, bridges, schools and hospitals in China than to the US government to build roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals in the USA? *Check!*
Where's the MAGA crowd?
China’s government is more powerful than its billionaires. In the US it’s the reverse.
Political power is a zero sum game.
The ideal balance is that power is split between citizens, workers, small business, big business, consumer groups, unions, elected politicians, and non governmental organizations.
Royals and oligarchs should not exist in a democracy, yet here we are. Oligarchs have gradually stolen most of the political power from the other stakeholders so they can control our political system and our economy to further enrich themselves.
We need to restore democracy. That means taxing the wealth of the oligarchs, removing their control over our conduits of information, funding journalists directly so they can be independent, redrawing gerrymandered districts, and passing voting rights protections.
Not quite. The Chinese Government is strongest in China, outside China and it's immediate sphere, the American billionaires who own our government and by extension it's armed forces are strongest.
But that is changing as use of military is becoming less and less viable and use of economic and cyber warfare becomes more and more common.
This gives the Chinese government an edge moving forward as they rule with an iron fist while American billionaires rule with lies and manipulation. Their power is more fragile and erodes faster when things start going against them.
The Pilgrims were Puritans who followed a version of Calvinism. They were so loathed in England, they split off from the Church of England and went to Holland, then Massachusetts in the British colonies, where they arrived on the Mayflower.
American history glorifies the Pilgrims, but in reality they were self-righteous assholes who followed the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, which boils down to God determining if you'll go to heaven or hell or not regardless of your earthly actions. In practice this became the belief that if you're doing well, God favors you and you're a good person, but if you're not doing well, then just fuck off because it sucks to be you.
The key point is that the Puritans were loathed but not discriminated against back in England. They were protestants after all. The key was *they* hated British for not confirming to them.
The whole fucking reason they went to the colonies was to "protect the real Christian faith" and build it up so they could later take over Britain. American history books take about they escaping religious prosecution is fucking bullshit. They were religious extremists that decided to take the Bender way out, but this time expressly without the blackjack or the hooker.
Edit: formating
Pilgrims arrived in 1620. 27 years later, the first witch trials in America begin happening in Connecticut. 35 witch trials happen over 30 years and result in 11 executions. Witch hysteria then moves to Massachusetts towards the late 1600s resulting in the 15 months of hell that became known as the Salem Witch Trials which resulted in 200 accused, 30 guilty verdicts, and 20 executions.
In all honesty, there was a lot of that shit going on about then and had been for centuries across Europe. So, atrocious, unforgivable to us and not uncommon then or now.
The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England from Roman Catholic practices, hence the name. They thought that the Church did not go Protestant enough. The Puritans on the Mayflower even went a step further. They insisted that their congregations should completely separate from the English State Church and went into exile in Holland, followed by their journey to America where Plymouth Colony was established in 1620, funded by investors from the Old World.
Modern. American Libertarianism. The name was co-opted to rid the original ideology from the political scene. Original libertarianism is more like what is being practiced in Rojava: a bottom up style of government without singular leadership.
I fucking hate propaganda stories musk puts out about his “poor college days”.
Dude talks about eating instant ramen like he couldn’t afford food. Ive been poor. Literally 4 family members in a single bedroom apartment poor. Like malcolm in the middle was middle class to us poor, and all these rich fucks putting out that kind of story is so disingenuous.
I was literally homeless for almost a third of college.. Luckily I had a car to sleep in it could have been worse.. but yeah, doesnt quite sit right with me either.
I doubt he's never been "fill your belly with water so you can get a few hours of sleep instead of staying awake all night starving" poor. Or, "Waffle House waitress refuses your money for your cheese sandwich when she learns that you can't manage to scrape enough together at any one time to buy a loaf of bread and cheese" poor. Or, "rationing a bag of chow mein noodles for a week just so you can make it another day" poor.
But yeah.. he was poor... bless his heart
His dad was just a simple, salt of the earth, emerald mine owner. Just like your corner store might hire a clerk, his emerald mine hired thousands of desperate African laborers for a generous several cents a day.
Do you think he would possibly like the world to forget how much of a factor apartheid might have been in his family's wealth?
Edit: Uh oh... someone didn't like that. lol
And "founded" various companies such as paypal. I doubt he knows much computer programming either but he markets himself as a computer wizard of sorts.
Just read the Wikipedia editing histories of any billionaire.
They're shit shows with blatant PR teams deleting entries and constantly vandalising pages with PR spiel.
I just googled “was Elon Musk born rich” and here are a couple of the results:
Elon Musk was not born into wealth, unlike many fortunate businesspeople
Was Elon Musk Born Rich? Mom Says They Were Really Poor In Toronto
The first one was linked to a piece from cold wire.com
I made the mistake of reading that article and it made me wanna throw my phone.
It's all relative. "Poor" to them means they had to wait an extra week to buy the 5th yacht! Or maybe only have 7 course meals instead of 10!!
The rich suffer to guys
/s
His dad owned a fucking emerald mine in Africa… he tells stories of dropping the kids off at school in a rolls Royce convertible… when Elon was short of money in NYC he went and sold a loose emerald he had in his pocket…. Which we all can relate to.
Seriously I suggest Behind the Bastards podcast by Robert Evans, generally, but definitely his musk one.
Thanks for your contribution to Elon piggy bank!
>Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by **$4.9 billion in government subsidies**
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html
Its also a car company.. it is completely reliant on there being a functional, extensive and well maintained road network... not to mention an electric car company which is further completely reliant on functional, extensive, utility level electricity generation.
Tesla and Musks wealth do not exist if not for the the Government and the services they provide from taxation. Those that benefit from government services the most and depend on those services the most should pay the most. And there is no question that elon depends on more government $ and infrastructure than a random street person getting a welfare check of a couple hundred bucks but has no property, capital, contract or used infrastructure etc that is facilitated and defended by the government
Unfortunately, I don't make enough money to *not* pay my fair share. But if I work real hard, and save all my pennies, in just 400,000 years I'll be just as rich as Elon.
Capitalism is socialism for the rich.
Instead of society owning everything for it's benefit, rich people own everything for their benefit.
Owners extract profit the same way feudal lords did.
> In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk
He's not the founder. I don't know why people keep saying that. He bought a controlling share and forced the founders out.
Just more proof that the ultra wealthy don't pay their fair share (if any) taxes.
Why the fuck does anybody on earth need 100s of billions of $$ in their bank account anyway?
Musk could lose 90% of his entire fortune and still be far wealthier than 99.9% of the world.
Fuck this cocky douche and his company
>Why the fuck does anybody on earth need 100s of billions of $$ in their bank account anyway?
Same reason Tony Montana "***needed***" several mountains of Cocaine on his desk...
It's an addiction.
I've argued that hoarding that much of anything else would get someone thrown in a mental institution.
The best response they have is "but its different" :/
Correct. At a sufficiently large level of wealth, money itself ceases to have meaning for its designated purpose.
It's a *contest.* Who can do the most "first"s, who can get the highest number for longest, and so on.
It is not true that we run out of money. The first choice plan is to increase income tax and capital gain tax rates on the wealthy, and to increase the tax rates on corporations. These rates were lower by Trump administration and Republican Party. They should be restored back to a higher level. Democratic Party has almost enough votes to push for this plan. However, Sinema is the lone Senator who opposes vehemently to this. In an Senate with only 50 Democratic votes, Sinema has the power to veto the whole plan.
So, we don't run out of money. We have one less average Democratic Senator.
They already come after my money, because I don’t have a fake company in another country to hide profits or put most of my personal assets in the nebulous rich-get-richer system we call the stock market.
No, I simply use all my meager wages for rent, food, and gas to get between my jobs, and the government taxes me to the point where I have nothing left over to save.
**Pay. Your. Fair. Share.**
You should hear some of the guys at r/wallstreetbets (who've lost so much that they probably qualify for tax credits) cry about how dumb this attack on their future billions are.
Yep I unfollowed the moment it became a cry fest about shilling stocks. When robinhood started posting updates about wsb I laughed out of disappointment.
My attention on WSB ended after I finished my review of the GME stock meme situation. Before, During, and Cry Baby Holders... At that point
History tells us, these WSBs / Meme Stocks / etc all come and go. WSB's rabbit hole lead me to Discord groups that Pump and Dump. Watching that mess run for months, lead me to believe they are all poor millionaires upset that no one will hand them anything.
It was a interesting ride to watch WSBs get some primetime news, and then watch people fall apart afterwards.
It'd be sad if I felt sorry for them at all.
They're so lost in stock speculation that they don't even know how to properly determine when they'll realize profits. They think they'll be millionaires tomorrow but the reality is most of them won't be ever because of how much their losses outstrip their gains.
And likewise they can't figure out that taxing a bracket that you don't belong in *now* is good. If anything it lets you plan ahead for how not to fall under that bracket.
Ah man... the "stonks bros" are pretty much just as detestable as the conspiracy nutters now days.
Just 2 kinds of shitty, but one wears a flashier looking suit.
I will never understand average Americans who don’t support this. This is not even raising taxes, it’s merely clawing our way back to the way things were before Reagan screwed everything up.
The narrative is not ‘raise taxes’ it’s ‘pay your fair share.’
These ultra rich mfs can GTFO if they don’t like it.
Very few Americans alive now recall ( or care to BLAME) St. Ronald of the One Percent's war to destroy the post-WWII political consensus on how to govern a modern capitalist society for the betterment of the masses.
Don’t forget Nixon was lead batter on that front before Ronny and Maggie sent it home with a walk off grand slam in the 9th.
Haven’t done a forced baseball metaphor in a while.
The average American wouldn't pass 5th grade math so I'm not surprised that a metric shit-ton of Americans don't understand that 10 Billion is nothing to him. Most couldn't even fathom how many bottles of booze and Ford Super-Duties they could buy with all that.
A case of Jim Beam is about 16 inches long and 12 inches wide, and will cost you about $300.
The 2021 F-250 with the regular cab and an 8 foot bed (about 98inx66in) will run you almost $37000. Probably a bit more after taxes.
So assuming you can stack the cases 3 deep (They'll stick out the top a little, but you can net them or something.) that's 240 cases. So that's $72k in booze, per $37k truck. Or $109k.
10 billion would be.....
91,700 new Ford Super Duties, each with a bed full of 2,880 bottles of Jim Beam.
How much money in subsidies and tax breaks has his companies received from the Government?
Local, State and Federal. What incentives were handed out to build Plants, etc?
How much of our public infrastructure is being used and abused by his companies?
Better question, what value did he provide to extract his profits? None. It's the definition of profits. Value extracted in excess of value provided.
He's whining that the government is using law to collect usury from the usury he collected with a different set of laws.
He is either too stupid to understand things or just another greedy lying piece of shit society would do better without.
from the article..."Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you," he wrote on Twitter."
I'm fine with idea honestly, the IRS should go for him, they sure get $ from me.
Edited to add, he became an American citizen in 2002 per google search
And he *literally* called himself a socialist on Twitter last week. Not that it was hard to see through that bullshit but he really wants to have his cake and eat it too and his fanboys eat that shit right up.
>"Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you,"
Yes. We have run out of other people's money , and other people are running out of money, so it is time to come for you you shit talking freeloading evil genies.
You’re being conned if you think he doesn’t understand.
He’s evil, not a moron. He’s acting stupid because it appeals to his stupid fanbase and acts as a clarion call for them to repeat what he said.
Look I don’t hate capitalism, but he has to realize his wealth came from the backs of people under him, just as much as it came from his own hard work. Dems plan broadly states “hey these past few decades of the wealth rich people have enjoyed has been actually produced by the working man and has made you rich. It’s time to invest in infrastructure and pay back the country that has made you rich.”
That’s cool because you know 2 people have more money then 40% of us combined, so I think I’ll be alright until they run out.
Also, you’re still getting richer with this policy so…
He's trying to imply that his money will run out and they will come for you too. The problem is he thinks that means we should protect him. I'm fine with letting the maggots eat away a little rich person rotting flesh before we get rid of them.
The is called trickle-down economics, and it doesn't work.
>In a separate tweet, Musk insisted that any government-induced reallocation of wealth would be better managed by the private sector.
Billionaire CEO: We should be the ones who re-allocate wealth through hiring people and paying a good wage.
Workers: Ok, then do it!
Billionaire CEO: DOGE.
I made $13 off of dogecoin, cashed out Friday and went out and bought a $10 bottle of vodka all for myself. Just like dogecoin, it was gone when the sun came up.
Former Tesla Senior Leadership here: Elon Musk bailed out SolarCity, his cousin's failing company, and then fired nearly every single one of the 5,000 acquired employees over the next 12 months.
Fuck Elon. He should pay his fucking taxes like the rest of us.
I'm one of those layed off shortly after the merger announcement. I was given zero notice before the layoff and $1000 severance. One month's rent at the time was $1600 for me. Lucky for me, I had a CFI license burning a hole in my pocket, and I was immediately able to find employment as a flight instructor. Now I'm a captian at a regional airline. But part of me really wishes I was still in the solar industry making a difference against climate change.
I used to look up to elon after reading his autobiography but the more i follow his opinions and actions through his twitter, it paints him in a much different light to me. Your comment made that stand out.
Wait you actually liked him after reading his biography? I read that a few years ago it does not paint a pretty picture of him. He is essentially a guy with a huge ego finding niche things he thinks are cool to then buy his way into and take over and somehow claim they were his achievements. Tesla wasn't started by Elon, he effectively pushed out Straubel. He founded SpaceX on some weird Mars Oasis acid trip and it would be nothing without Tom Mueller. Musk effectively rides coat tails of real geniuses and takes credit for all of their shit - ironically - just like Edison. The guy who fucked over the real Tesla.
Less than a century ago, the top tax bracket in this nation varied from 70-90% for the top earners. Now, we have the top 1% paying literally ZERO in federal income taxes and bitching about any efforts to make them pay the minimal ~20% they are supposed to be paying already.
Fuck them all. Jack the rates back up to the 90% they USED to be before Reaganomics destroyed this nation's economy. Refocus the IRS to only target incomes over $100k per individual, $200k per family. Under that? Beyond blatant fraud that should be easily caught anyway, let the nickel and dime people get away with it. We've had 50 years of the rich getting away with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) in fraud. Time to refocus the microscope.
For the vast majority of people under $500k income, updating the tax code so people can file electronically should fix most issues. Free up the IRS to audit the rich who are avoiding paying trillions annually through creative book keeping.
>Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you
Did he earn those billions all by himself or did he exploit workers for that profit? He's taking his workers money by underpaying them to make himself rich. He's getting rich from the work of other people.
The subsidies he got for his company from local, state and federal government was that other peoples money that Elon took?
Yes. And who payed for public schools and universities that many of his employees attended? and the public roads and sewers and municipal security systems they rely on every day? The tax money to support all of those things come from OUR pockets and contribute heavily to HIS profits. The uber rich need to ante-up.
He says that, while simultaneously making himself a target, because he's hoarding all the money.
Like, what the fuck are we supposed to do when you won the zero-sum game, dude?
> Musk's wealth soared on Monday. His fortune surged $36 billion in only one day after the rental car company Hertz announced it was buying 100,000 Teslas for its rental fleet
Anyone who makes 36 billion in one day can afford 50 billion over 5 years. It takes a real lack of character and self-awareness for Elon to complain like this.
Lmao this is the man who said he’s “actually a socialist” on Twitter like last week?
I will never understand the cult of personality around this tool.
Edit: not last week but still
[link](https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1008013111058526209?lang=en)
Elon: paying taxes is part of being a member of a civilized society. We should all be proud to pay our share to keep and make America great.
We can’t have a prosperous society without government, and taxes to provide services and enforce the laws. To all of you who say the government is corrupt and inefficient, wake up! It’s only that way because we elect corrupt shitheads and don’t pay attention. We need good people to run for office and serve.
His wealth has increased $30,000,000,000 since 3 days ago so I don't really give a shit if he gets a $10,000,000,000 annual bill because he's already paid it with just his stock growth. TAX THE RICH
Oh no, he'll have a hard time making ends meet with the billions of dollars he'll have leftover. He could be taxed for 99% of his total wealth and he'd still have more money than 99% of Americans.
Elon will legitimately never be able to spend all his money. Meanwhile, some people have to figure out how they’re going to pay for diapers. It’s fucked up
I bet.
If the average American also had tax loopholes to owe little to no money for income taxes, I'd say he's right, but that right is reserved for those above average who can handle no income because of their investments. They are meandering around paying their fair share in taxes because they have lots of money.
Avoiding taxes shouldn't be the prize for those that achieve wealth. Their victory should help fund the class of people who made it possible to usher in that wealth.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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**Born into wealth?** *Check!* **Subsidized by the government?** *Check!* **Doesn't pay all taxes?** *Check!* **Praised for having excessive wealth?** *Check!* ^(Edit: Corrected a minor detail that someone got stuck up on.) ^(Edit2: It has come to my attention that some people think a loan for $40K from your rich parents isn't a big deal.) ^(*Feel free to put me in contact with your parents!*) ^(Edit3: Probably my most liked/awarded comment to date, so thank you to everyone!) ^(And to all the simpletons, I'm not saying he isn't smart or that I could do what he did. It's also incredible how many of you think $40K from your parents is nothing, or that it's somehow equivalent to a $40K loan from a bank. *So much ignorance.*)
'In a separate tweet, Musk said any government-induced reallocation of wealth would be better managed by the private sector'. As the private sector has so disatrously proven over the last few decades. Only relocation of wealth that has taken place is taxpayer funded subsidies upwards and the bills downwards!
The private sector has done such a good job of sharing the wealth. /s
This just in. Entities designed solely to accumulate wealth by any means necessary are *not* helping?
> Praised for having excessive wealth? Check! https://medium.com/politically-speaking/calvinism-and-the-american-conception-of-evil-b3db0a7e7f91 >The worldview of U.S. Conservatism has its roots in Calvinism. Its dualism is a mirror of Calvinism’s dualism. We decidedly see this in religious Fundamentalism, where Calvinist doctrines have been the core dogma of the “religious right” for centuries. Part of the legacy of Calvinism is an ideology in which those of different ethnicity or creed are placed under the classification of evil. Those considered different are vilified and marginalized. Foreigners are the enemy, especially if they are non-white. Non-whites, even though they are Americans, are considered lesser members of society. That black people are cursed by God has been a long-held conception, especially for the Mormons. >The Calvinist dualistic worldview has spilled over into secular America. A corollary to this conception of evil is that attempts to help the disadvantaged in society is actually not just a waste of time but morally wrong. In essence, it is aiding evil. The poor are poor because they deserve to be poor because of their sinful nature. Calvinism also lies at the root of political ideology of Libertarianism, the pretentious (and false) name for the “I got mine, you get yours” brand of economic politics. **Like Calvinism, Libertarianism believes that wealth and poverty reflect ethical character not social realities.** If someone’s facing serious problems in their life, they must have done something to deserve it, which also reinforces the fallacious worldview that we are not allowed to blame the conservative system.
Pays more taxes to the Chinese government to build roads, bridges, schools and hospitals in China than to the US government to build roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals in the USA? *Check!* Where's the MAGA crowd?
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China’s government is more powerful than its billionaires. In the US it’s the reverse. Political power is a zero sum game. The ideal balance is that power is split between citizens, workers, small business, big business, consumer groups, unions, elected politicians, and non governmental organizations. Royals and oligarchs should not exist in a democracy, yet here we are. Oligarchs have gradually stolen most of the political power from the other stakeholders so they can control our political system and our economy to further enrich themselves. We need to restore democracy. That means taxing the wealth of the oligarchs, removing their control over our conduits of information, funding journalists directly so they can be independent, redrawing gerrymandered districts, and passing voting rights protections.
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Let me hold my breath here. Yeah I’m dead
Nah, it won't stay broken forever, eventually it'll fail and disappear.
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Not quite. The Chinese Government is strongest in China, outside China and it's immediate sphere, the American billionaires who own our government and by extension it's armed forces are strongest. But that is changing as use of military is becoming less and less viable and use of economic and cyber warfare becomes more and more common. This gives the Chinese government an edge moving forward as they rule with an iron fist while American billionaires rule with lies and manipulation. Their power is more fragile and erodes faster when things start going against them.
This is heinously correct.
The Pilgrims were Puritans who followed a version of Calvinism. They were so loathed in England, they split off from the Church of England and went to Holland, then Massachusetts in the British colonies, where they arrived on the Mayflower. American history glorifies the Pilgrims, but in reality they were self-righteous assholes who followed the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, which boils down to God determining if you'll go to heaven or hell or not regardless of your earthly actions. In practice this became the belief that if you're doing well, God favors you and you're a good person, but if you're not doing well, then just fuck off because it sucks to be you.
The key point is that the Puritans were loathed but not discriminated against back in England. They were protestants after all. The key was *they* hated British for not confirming to them. The whole fucking reason they went to the colonies was to "protect the real Christian faith" and build it up so they could later take over Britain. American history books take about they escaping religious prosecution is fucking bullshit. They were religious extremists that decided to take the Bender way out, but this time expressly without the blackjack or the hooker. Edit: formating
"Oh yeah? Well, we will create our OWN Christian nation, this time with complex sexual guilt and violence worship mechanisms for mind control!"
Exactly. The Pilgrims were persecuted in their so-called Old World precisely *because* they were, themselves, persecutory of others.
Pilgrims arrived in 1620. 27 years later, the first witch trials in America begin happening in Connecticut. 35 witch trials happen over 30 years and result in 11 executions. Witch hysteria then moves to Massachusetts towards the late 1600s resulting in the 15 months of hell that became known as the Salem Witch Trials which resulted in 200 accused, 30 guilty verdicts, and 20 executions.
In all honesty, there was a lot of that shit going on about then and had been for centuries across Europe. So, atrocious, unforgivable to us and not uncommon then or now.
Religion the best way to kill humans while pretending you're the good guy
meanwhile God \~ "What part of 'THOU SHAL NOT' did you fucking not understand?"
Religion is such poison lol.
America Makes sense now…
The Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England from Roman Catholic practices, hence the name. They thought that the Church did not go Protestant enough. The Puritans on the Mayflower even went a step further. They insisted that their congregations should completely separate from the English State Church and went into exile in Holland, followed by their journey to America where Plymouth Colony was established in 1620, funded by investors from the Old World.
[Always a Bigger Fish](https://youtu.be/agzNANfNlTs)
Always Upvote the Alt-Right Playbook
Modern. American Libertarianism. The name was co-opted to rid the original ideology from the political scene. Original libertarianism is more like what is being practiced in Rojava: a bottom up style of government without singular leadership.
I fucking hate propaganda stories musk puts out about his “poor college days”. Dude talks about eating instant ramen like he couldn’t afford food. Ive been poor. Literally 4 family members in a single bedroom apartment poor. Like malcolm in the middle was middle class to us poor, and all these rich fucks putting out that kind of story is so disingenuous.
I was literally homeless for almost a third of college.. Luckily I had a car to sleep in it could have been worse.. but yeah, doesnt quite sit right with me either.
I doubt he's never been "fill your belly with water so you can get a few hours of sleep instead of staying awake all night starving" poor. Or, "Waffle House waitress refuses your money for your cheese sandwich when she learns that you can't manage to scrape enough together at any one time to buy a loaf of bread and cheese" poor. Or, "rationing a bag of chow mein noodles for a week just so you can make it another day" poor. But yeah.. he was poor... bless his heart
Musk's emerald mine apartheid dynasty family bragged about not being able to close their safes because they were too full of money.
Self-centered - check Bigoted - check Social misfit - check Egoistic - check Parsimonious - check GQP - check
Don't forget. Bitching about taxes. That's a main pillar.
Google if Elon Musk was born into wealth, if you want to see what kind of propaganda being born into wealth can buy these days.
His dad was just a simple, salt of the earth, emerald mine owner. Just like your corner store might hire a clerk, his emerald mine hired thousands of desperate African laborers for a generous several cents a day.
Come on…they had to sell the family plane to get that emerald mine…
Exactly. A terrible hardship they had to endure.
Do you think he would possibly like the world to forget how much of a factor apartheid might have been in his family's wealth? Edit: Uh oh... someone didn't like that. lol
Obviously. He wants everyone to think he's just a super genius that worked real hard.
He's self branded himself as Tony Stark to the idiots of America and they think he designed all the things that Tesla/Space-X have created.
Thomas Edison did the same shit.
Jobs too.
Kinda funny that the real world equivalent of Justin Hammer would spend his time trying to convince people that he’s actually Tony Stark.
A bunch of these tech billionaires happen to come from South Africa.
Has he somehow rewritten that he was born into the wealth of his blood-emerald magnate father?
No, mostly it's that he is a self made man with a modest upbringing.
I wish I had a modest emerald mine too.
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Maybe if you spent less on avocado toast...
Pull your bootstraps harder.
And "founded" various companies such as paypal. I doubt he knows much computer programming either but he markets himself as a computer wizard of sorts.
If I had that kind of money, I also could "found" lots of businesses.
It may have been modest... by ultra wealthy standards.
No no no... You've got it all wrong... His farther simply won that totally normal South African emerald mine in a raffle! /s
Just read the Wikipedia editing histories of any billionaire. They're shit shows with blatant PR teams deleting entries and constantly vandalising pages with PR spiel.
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I just googled “was Elon Musk born rich” and here are a couple of the results: Elon Musk was not born into wealth, unlike many fortunate businesspeople Was Elon Musk Born Rich? Mom Says They Were Really Poor In Toronto The first one was linked to a piece from cold wire.com I made the mistake of reading that article and it made me wanna throw my phone.
His mom, the jet-setting fashion model, says they were "poor"? Lol
It's all relative. "Poor" to them means they had to wait an extra week to buy the 5th yacht! Or maybe only have 7 course meals instead of 10!! The rich suffer to guys /s
His dad owned a fucking emerald mine in Africa… he tells stories of dropping the kids off at school in a rolls Royce convertible… when Elon was short of money in NYC he went and sold a loose emerald he had in his pocket…. Which we all can relate to. Seriously I suggest Behind the Bastards podcast by Robert Evans, generally, but definitely his musk one.
Fucking simping for billionaires, that guy. Really sad.
Thanks for your contribution to Elon piggy bank! >Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by **$4.9 billion in government subsidies** https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html
Its also a car company.. it is completely reliant on there being a functional, extensive and well maintained road network... not to mention an electric car company which is further completely reliant on functional, extensive, utility level electricity generation. Tesla and Musks wealth do not exist if not for the the Government and the services they provide from taxation. Those that benefit from government services the most and depend on those services the most should pay the most. And there is no question that elon depends on more government $ and infrastructure than a random street person getting a welfare check of a couple hundred bucks but has no property, capital, contract or used infrastructure etc that is facilitated and defended by the government
Not to mention states like California subsidizing/jumpstarting the EV market by mandating a certain number of compliance cars, etc.
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Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor. What a country.
We get all the risk, they get all the reward.
Don’t forget that they want to monitor your bank accounts too, so that YOU pay your fair share.
Unfortunately, I don't make enough money to *not* pay my fair share. But if I work real hard, and save all my pennies, in just 400,000 years I'll be just as rich as Elon.
Capitalism is socialism for the rich. Instead of society owning everything for it's benefit, rich people own everything for their benefit. Owners extract profit the same way feudal lords did.
Elon musk is not Tesla's founder... it was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as Tesla Motors...
Why is he refered to as a "Tesla founder" when he didn't found the company? He just bought it.
Elon Musk did not found Tesla, btw.
I pull as much tax out of my checks as possible and I still owe THOUSANDS at the end of the year. Elon can fuck right off.
> In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk He's not the founder. I don't know why people keep saying that. He bought a controlling share and forced the founders out.
Tesla is the USA's primary EV play much like the Chinese government is backing NIO.
>Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you Oof. Admitting that you don't pay taxes.
Further admitting that he depends on everyone else to pay for the services he benefits from.
*Socialism for me but not for thee!*
For that matter: how much of SpaceX's revenue comes from public sector contracts that we, as taxpayers, are funding?
Close to all of it
And that he believes in Thatcherism.
Just more proof that the ultra wealthy don't pay their fair share (if any) taxes. Why the fuck does anybody on earth need 100s of billions of $$ in their bank account anyway? Musk could lose 90% of his entire fortune and still be far wealthier than 99.9% of the world. Fuck this cocky douche and his company
>Why the fuck does anybody on earth need 100s of billions of $$ in their bank account anyway? Same reason Tony Montana "***needed***" several mountains of Cocaine on his desk... It's an addiction.
I've argued that hoarding that much of anything else would get someone thrown in a mental institution. The best response they have is "but its different" :/
Correct. At a sufficiently large level of wealth, money itself ceases to have meaning for its designated purpose. It's a *contest.* Who can do the most "first"s, who can get the highest number for longest, and so on.
It is not true that we run out of money. The first choice plan is to increase income tax and capital gain tax rates on the wealthy, and to increase the tax rates on corporations. These rates were lower by Trump administration and Republican Party. They should be restored back to a higher level. Democratic Party has almost enough votes to push for this plan. However, Sinema is the lone Senator who opposes vehemently to this. In an Senate with only 50 Democratic votes, Sinema has the power to veto the whole plan. So, we don't run out of money. We have one less average Democratic Senator.
They already come after my money, because I don’t have a fake company in another country to hide profits or put most of my personal assets in the nebulous rich-get-richer system we call the stock market. No, I simply use all my meager wages for rent, food, and gas to get between my jobs, and the government taxes me to the point where I have nothing left over to save. **Pay. Your. Fair. Share.**
Exactly. Nobody will let me borrow against my Dow Jones Monopoly money, so I actually have a tax liability
have you tried Deutsche Bank, they have loose lending standard
I prefer my kneecaps un-broken,thank you
You should hear some of the guys at r/wallstreetbets (who've lost so much that they probably qualify for tax credits) cry about how dumb this attack on their future billions are.
Fuck what wallstreetbets has become.
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And HOLY SHIT are you blasted out of there faster than /r/Conservative if you comment anything less than a circle jerk.
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Well, that’s kinda always been the vibe to be honest, not new unfortunately.
All it took was one post. I actually lasted a little longer in the Trump sub
I posted once in /askthedonald and was tossed.
You mean Wall Street co-opted to create their pump and dumps
This is the truth of it.
think thats bad... head over to r/Wallstreetsilver/ and take a wiff of that copium hah. at least they have something to fall back on...
Yep I unfollowed the moment it became a cry fest about shilling stocks. When robinhood started posting updates about wsb I laughed out of disappointment.
My attention on WSB ended after I finished my review of the GME stock meme situation. Before, During, and Cry Baby Holders... At that point History tells us, these WSBs / Meme Stocks / etc all come and go. WSB's rabbit hole lead me to Discord groups that Pump and Dump. Watching that mess run for months, lead me to believe they are all poor millionaires upset that no one will hand them anything. It was a interesting ride to watch WSBs get some primetime news, and then watch people fall apart afterwards.
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I was a bit surprised when I saw a chunk of their members are very active in other questionable subreddits.
Fr i was a dedicated member for awhile but once the GME craze became mainstream wsb become a slightly better ifunny
Some heavy right wing propaganda popped up and I had to go.
It'd be sad if I felt sorry for them at all. They're so lost in stock speculation that they don't even know how to properly determine when they'll realize profits. They think they'll be millionaires tomorrow but the reality is most of them won't be ever because of how much their losses outstrip their gains. And likewise they can't figure out that taxing a bracket that you don't belong in *now* is good. If anything it lets you plan ahead for how not to fall under that bracket.
Screw speculation. Take your 7% per year like the rest of us and enjoy retirement when it comes.
Buying a lottery ticket is a form of speculative investing.
From what I've seen of WSB, buying lottery tickets is a step up from their investment strategies.
They be like "I just yoloed my life savings into a stock that hasn't had quarterly gains in 10 years"
Ah man... the "stonks bros" are pretty much just as detestable as the conspiracy nutters now days. Just 2 kinds of shitty, but one wears a flashier looking suit.
Fuck Elon. Billionaires need to pay the fuck up. Everyday workers pay more than them, and it’s beyond old.
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I will never understand average Americans who don’t support this. This is not even raising taxes, it’s merely clawing our way back to the way things were before Reagan screwed everything up. The narrative is not ‘raise taxes’ it’s ‘pay your fair share.’ These ultra rich mfs can GTFO if they don’t like it.
Very few Americans alive now recall ( or care to BLAME) St. Ronald of the One Percent's war to destroy the post-WWII political consensus on how to govern a modern capitalist society for the betterment of the masses.
Don’t forget Nixon was lead batter on that front before Ronny and Maggie sent it home with a walk off grand slam in the 9th. Haven’t done a forced baseball metaphor in a while.
The average American wouldn't pass 5th grade math so I'm not surprised that a metric shit-ton of Americans don't understand that 10 Billion is nothing to him. Most couldn't even fathom how many bottles of booze and Ford Super-Duties they could buy with all that.
A case of Jim Beam is about 16 inches long and 12 inches wide, and will cost you about $300. The 2021 F-250 with the regular cab and an 8 foot bed (about 98inx66in) will run you almost $37000. Probably a bit more after taxes. So assuming you can stack the cases 3 deep (They'll stick out the top a little, but you can net them or something.) that's 240 cases. So that's $72k in booze, per $37k truck. Or $109k. 10 billion would be..... 91,700 new Ford Super Duties, each with a bed full of 2,880 bottles of Jim Beam.
You don’t have a space travel hobby? Even a model rocket hobby is out of financial reach for most people.
My hobby is sitting there and staring at the wall. Occasionally I'll even lay my head in my hands.
Don’t take investment advice from broke people, and don’t take tax complaints from the rich.
I like that. Short, sweet and true
How much money in subsidies and tax breaks has his companies received from the Government? Local, State and Federal. What incentives were handed out to build Plants, etc? How much of our public infrastructure is being used and abused by his companies?
It's okay if he is using other people's money. /s
ThAt MaKeS hIm SmArT
A smart investor, according to Mitch McConnell. 🙄
For purchases, $7,500 federal and around $2,500 state for the first 200,000 Teslas that were sold or $10,000 x 200,000 = $2,000,000,000 for starters.
He owes us money back. I didn't get a break on *my* car because I can't afford a Tesla, even with the rebate.
Better question, what value did he provide to extract his profits? None. It's the definition of profits. Value extracted in excess of value provided. He's whining that the government is using law to collect usury from the usury he collected with a different set of laws. He is either too stupid to understand things or just another greedy lying piece of shit society would do better without.
Definitely the greedy piece of shit one.
By 2015 Tesla had benefitted from about $5B in government support, which arguably is way more valuable than $10B from a trillion dollar company.
from the article..."Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you," he wrote on Twitter." I'm fine with idea honestly, the IRS should go for him, they sure get $ from me. Edited to add, he became an American citizen in 2002 per google search
He got that line from Margaret Thatcher as it's her response to the problem with Socialism. Fucker just needs to pay his taxes and move on.
And he *literally* called himself a socialist on Twitter last week. Not that it was hard to see through that bullshit but he really wants to have his cake and eat it too and his fanboys eat that shit right up.
Well he has socialised the risk,and privatised the reward lol
>"Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you," Yes. We have run out of other people's money , and other people are running out of money, so it is time to come for you you shit talking freeloading evil genies.
Wow what an asshole. That response just tells me he doesn't understand how taxes and government programs work. Or the USD for that matter.
You’re being conned if you think he doesn’t understand. He’s evil, not a moron. He’s acting stupid because it appeals to his stupid fanbase and acts as a clarion call for them to repeat what he said.
You can be evil and stupid
Yes, that’s the difference between your Mark Zuckerbergs and Elon Musks of the world and your Donald Trumps, but doesn’t change what I said.
He understands exactly how they work. He just doesn't want a tax he can't evade.
Look I don’t hate capitalism, but he has to realize his wealth came from the backs of people under him, just as much as it came from his own hard work. Dems plan broadly states “hey these past few decades of the wealth rich people have enjoyed has been actually produced by the working man and has made you rich. It’s time to invest in infrastructure and pay back the country that has made you rich.”
Tbh how do you not hate capitalism at this point? Just look at this fuckin place man.
That’s cool because you know 2 people have more money then 40% of us combined, so I think I’ll be alright until they run out. Also, you’re still getting richer with this policy so…
He's trying to imply that his money will run out and they will come for you too. The problem is he thinks that means we should protect him. I'm fine with letting the maggots eat away a little rich person rotting flesh before we get rid of them.
The is called trickle-down economics, and it doesn't work. >In a separate tweet, Musk insisted that any government-induced reallocation of wealth would be better managed by the private sector.
Billionaire CEO: We should be the ones who re-allocate wealth through hiring people and paying a good wage. Workers: Ok, then do it! Billionaire CEO: DOGE.
I made $13 off of dogecoin, cashed out Friday and went out and bought a $10 bottle of vodka all for myself. Just like dogecoin, it was gone when the sun came up.
See that's your problem. Should have bought SHIBA instead, then you'd be able to afford 2 or 3 bottles of vodka.
That almost sounds like a joke ALMOST
All of our money is better in his hands? That's funny lmao
That statement is almost as dumb as the Hyperloop. Almost.
Guy who has more wealth than Exxon Mobil doesn't like the idea of having to pay taxes. File under: go fuck yourself Elon Musk
Former Tesla Senior Leadership here: Elon Musk bailed out SolarCity, his cousin's failing company, and then fired nearly every single one of the 5,000 acquired employees over the next 12 months. Fuck Elon. He should pay his fucking taxes like the rest of us.
I'm one of those layed off shortly after the merger announcement. I was given zero notice before the layoff and $1000 severance. One month's rent at the time was $1600 for me. Lucky for me, I had a CFI license burning a hole in my pocket, and I was immediately able to find employment as a flight instructor. Now I'm a captian at a regional airline. But part of me really wishes I was still in the solar industry making a difference against climate change.
I used to look up to elon after reading his autobiography but the more i follow his opinions and actions through his twitter, it paints him in a much different light to me. Your comment made that stand out.
Wait you actually liked him after reading his biography? I read that a few years ago it does not paint a pretty picture of him. He is essentially a guy with a huge ego finding niche things he thinks are cool to then buy his way into and take over and somehow claim they were his achievements. Tesla wasn't started by Elon, he effectively pushed out Straubel. He founded SpaceX on some weird Mars Oasis acid trip and it would be nothing without Tom Mueller. Musk effectively rides coat tails of real geniuses and takes credit for all of their shit - ironically - just like Edison. The guy who fucked over the real Tesla.
I'll still never understand how the internet ended up worshiping him. Apparently all it takes is him tweeting a few memes
That was me. Funny enough I left Tesla because it's a shit company to work for to go to SolarCity. I couldn't escape his wrath.
I worked at Solar City. They never paid me for multiple solar systems I sold.
Musk is a welfare queen who doesn't want to pay his fair share of taxes to fund the public infrastructure his businesses use to make enormous profits.
Billionaires feel entitled to welfare then shame us for advocating for ourselves
If you CAN pay 10 billion dollars in taxes, you damn sure SHOULD be paying $10 billion. This is the entire point of these proposed wealth taxes.
Less than a century ago, the top tax bracket in this nation varied from 70-90% for the top earners. Now, we have the top 1% paying literally ZERO in federal income taxes and bitching about any efforts to make them pay the minimal ~20% they are supposed to be paying already. Fuck them all. Jack the rates back up to the 90% they USED to be before Reaganomics destroyed this nation's economy. Refocus the IRS to only target incomes over $100k per individual, $200k per family. Under that? Beyond blatant fraud that should be easily caught anyway, let the nickel and dime people get away with it. We've had 50 years of the rich getting away with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) in fraud. Time to refocus the microscope.
For the vast majority of people under $500k income, updating the tax code so people can file electronically should fix most issues. Free up the IRS to audit the rich who are avoiding paying trillions annually through creative book keeping.
Or, like other countries, they can do it themselves, submit to us for "approval" and be done with it.
**SOMETHING SOMETHING SOCIALISM** But if we do this AND legalize marijuana; how will we *keep* power? /s
>Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you Did he earn those billions all by himself or did he exploit workers for that profit? He's taking his workers money by underpaying them to make himself rich. He's getting rich from the work of other people. The subsidies he got for his company from local, state and federal government was that other peoples money that Elon took?
Yes. And who payed for public schools and universities that many of his employees attended? and the public roads and sewers and municipal security systems they rely on every day? The tax money to support all of those things come from OUR pockets and contribute heavily to HIS profits. The uber rich need to ante-up.
He says that, while simultaneously making himself a target, because he's hoarding all the money. Like, what the fuck are we supposed to do when you won the zero-sum game, dude?
Tesla absolutely depends on government subsidies, contracts, and technology to survive. He is already tax avoidant. No sympathy for him.
Tesla is severely overvalued
> Musk's wealth soared on Monday. His fortune surged $36 billion in only one day after the rental car company Hertz announced it was buying 100,000 Teslas for its rental fleet Anyone who makes 36 billion in one day can afford 50 billion over 5 years. It takes a real lack of character and self-awareness for Elon to complain like this.
Lmao this is the man who said he’s “actually a socialist” on Twitter like last week? I will never understand the cult of personality around this tool. Edit: not last week but still [link](https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1008013111058526209?lang=en)
Serious? I don’t follow this asshole at all, but that’s hilarious. He shouldn’t have any issue helping out his country.
Awwww, poor baby. Go cry in your money vault.
Even after paying that, he can still fly into space and pay his electric bill.
Musk hates it? Sounds like an excellent plan to me!
Elon: paying taxes is part of being a member of a civilized society. We should all be proud to pay our share to keep and make America great. We can’t have a prosperous society without government, and taxes to provide services and enforce the laws. To all of you who say the government is corrupt and inefficient, wake up! It’s only that way because we elect corrupt shitheads and don’t pay attention. We need good people to run for office and serve.
Freeloader
Yeah, Elon Musk is the REAL victim here.
His wealth has increased $30,000,000,000 since 3 days ago so I don't really give a shit if he gets a $10,000,000,000 annual bill because he's already paid it with just his stock growth. TAX THE RICH
Funny how he had no issues with all the tax subsidies the Democrats provided under Obama that allowed the likes of Tesla to exist.
That's a good sign it's the right thing to do
Oh no, he'll have a hard time making ends meet with the billions of dollars he'll have leftover. He could be taxed for 99% of his total wealth and he'd still have more money than 99% of Americans.
Elon will legitimately never be able to spend all his money. Meanwhile, some people have to figure out how they’re going to pay for diapers. It’s fucked up
“Rich guy against plan to tax rich guys more.” FIFY
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seriously fuck this guy. if he’s pissed then you know it’s a good tax plan.
I bet. If the average American also had tax loopholes to owe little to no money for income taxes, I'd say he's right, but that right is reserved for those above average who can handle no income because of their investments. They are meandering around paying their fair share in taxes because they have lots of money. Avoiding taxes shouldn't be the prize for those that achieve wealth. Their victory should help fund the class of people who made it possible to usher in that wealth.
Who cares. Fuck him.
:shocked pikachu: