The whole social media or blog outrage about Musk being worth a trillion dollars is an excellent example of how few people actually understand the concept of wealth and value.
First, the amount of people who cannot understand the fact that providing services under government contracts and receiving money from the government are not the same thing. SpaceX and Starlink are providing value to the government and have been paid for what they have provided.
Second, all too many people don't understand that Musk's wealth is not him sitting on a pile of cash. His wealth is in his ownership of shares of stock which can rise or fall in value.
Third, this notion that his wealth can be taxed without causing harm to the economy is insane. The only way to pay a wealth tax is to sell things. Yet the very sale of enough assets to pay the tax, would likely distort the markets and cause changes that would ripple throughout the economy.
Fourth, while Musk became a trillionaire, we also saw many of the SpaceX employees become millionaires.
Ignorance is seriously powerful, when attached to either power or a public voice.
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The absolute vitriol I've seen in response to Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire says a lot about the economic illiteracy of the average American.
It’s clear that most people have no idea how wealth actually works.
The most common gripe I'm seeing goes something like this: "No one should have that much money while people are struggling. He should be forced to give it back."
Give it BACK. As if he took it from someone.
Elon Musk sold his stake in PayPal for about $180 million. Most people would have retired.
Instead, he poured $100 million into SpaceX and $70 million into Tesla. Both companies nearly went bankrupt. SpaceX was weeks away from running out of money in 2008. He took out personal loans against his own assets just to make payroll.
That $180 million could have gone to zero. He risked it anyway.
Today SpaceX now handles over 80% of all American space launches. Starlink provides internet to 12 million subscribers, including people in war zones and disaster areas where no other service exists. Tesla employs over 100,000 people…
And last Friday, the SpaceX IPO made roughly 4,000 employees into millionaires... welders, engineers, cafeteria workers, people who received stock as part of their compensation in a company that Musk built from nothing.
That is not wealth being hoarded. That is wealth being created.
And here’s what most people miss…
When someone says "he needs to give back to society," they're ignoring the fact that the companies themselves ARE the giving back.
Every job created, every product built, every service provided, every employee who just became a millionaire... that IS the contribution. Demanding that Musk also hand over his money on top of all that is like watching someone build a hospital and then complaining that they didn't also donate to a hospital.
But the argument I find most baffling is the one that goes "we should just tax him more and let the government spend it better."
The same government that's $36 trillion in debt? The same government that lost hundreds of billions to COVID relief fraud?
Compare that to what SpaceX did when they were given government money. They built rockets. They rescued stranded astronauts. They developed technology that no one else on the planet could build. And when Tesla got a $465 million government loan, they paid it back early. With interest.
If you really think the government would be more efficient with Elon’s money than Elon, you’re a fool.
And think about this for a second…
Every single element in a SpaceX rocket existed on this planet 10,000 years ago. Every raw material in your phone, your car, your refrigerator... all of it was here when humans were living in caves. So what changed?
Innovation. Risk-taking. Private property. The ability to build something, own it, and benefit from it.
That is what pulls humanity out of poverty. Not redistribution. Not government programs. Innovation.
Five hundred years ago, the richest king in Europe lived worse than a middle-class American lives today. No air conditioning, no antibiotics, no refrigeration, no indoor plumbing in most cases.
The average American today has access to technology that the wealthiest person alive in 1980 couldn't have imagined. That didn't happen because a government committee decided to redistribute the king's gold. It happened because people were free to build things and incentivized by the idea of keeping what they earned.
For every Elon Musk, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of people who took the same kind of risk and lost everything. The only reason anyone takes that risk at all is because the system allows you to benefit if you succeed. Kill that incentive and you kill the innovation. And then everyone gets poorer, not just the rich.
So recognize that when a politician like Graham Platner says "let's make sure he's the last trillionaire," they're not proposing to raise your standard of living. They're proposing to cap it. They're trying to make sure no one gets rich enough to operate outside their control.
The people who built this country didn't build it by tearing down everyone who succeeded. They built it by creating the conditions where success was possible.
Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire is not a sign that the system is broken. It's a sign that the system is working the way it was designed to.
I’ll leave you with some lyrics from Kacey Musgraves' song, “Biscuits”:
"Pouring salt in my sugar won't make yours any sweeter"
"Pissing in my yard ain't gonna make yours any greener"
And making the guy who built the rockets poorer won't make you any richer. It'll just make sure nobody builds the next one."
2 comments:
I saw a great interview with a SpaceX employee, who knew nothing of the business when informed they were hiring. He worked his way up to a supervisory position and bought into the company. When it went public, his net worth jumped up about $800K. He's teaching his daughter about investing and to take shares of the company when possible.
Morons like Elizabeth Warren want to exploit this good fortune of Musk to push for a wealth tax, because those like her like to lie to the stupid in order to push the idea that they struggle because people like Musk are wealthy. Another total idiot and marxist, this Platner nazi, posted on social media that he intends to make sure Musk is the last trillionaire. Get that? He wants to prevent people from attaining wealth. Idiots will continue to vote for people like this and pretend they're making life better.
People like Warren and Sanders want to push their ignorance off onto others through foolish legislation which would cause much more harm than they are aware.
For Musk to pay this idiotic tax, he'd be forced to sell things at a level that would likely distort the market and put him at a disadvantage because of being forced to sell. Leaving aside that the one(s) who buy Musk's assets will then be putting a target on themselves because now they have too much wealth.
It's one of the few examples of a zero sum game around.
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