Congratulations @ElonMusk.
Thanks to SpaceX's IPO, he's the first Trillionaire.
He didn't TAKE money from anyone. He CREATED wealth.
He launched satellites that connect even the poorest, most remote parts of the world.
Our world needs more MAKERS like Musk; fewer TAKERS like:
No, you don't get it.
He does not have $1 trillion sitting in cash, it is 99% stock in his companies.
To make that wealth liquid would mean selling all that stock which would swiftly destroy *both* the companies (Tesla, SpaceX, others) and the wealth. If he sold it all, he'd end up with maybe $100b max, several hundred thousand people would be out of work, the companies ruined and many of their suppliers also ruined.
Okay, but now Elon has $100b in cash, and can "solve the world's problems".
$100b divided by the world's 8 billion people is $12
If you were in charge, several of the most innovative industrial companies in the world would be destroyed, hundreds of thousands out of work, and space would again close to human civilization for another generation.
But everyone on earth could have one nice meal and you could revel in your altruism.
If you taxed 100% of Elon’s net worth, confiscated every penny, you could fund the current US government for about… 49 days.
We don’t have a revenue problem.
We have a welfare spending problem.
If there were no trillionaires, politicians would target billionaires.
If there were no billionaires, they'd target millionaires.
If there were no millionaires, they'd target anyone with a paid off house and a retirement account.
The level of outrage scales to whatever wealth exists.
That's how you know the issue isn't the number.
The issue is that someone has more than someone else.
The villain is chosen first.
The threshold is chosen later.
@SenWarren There is nothing wrong with making a trillion dollars, clown. If you produce $1T of economic value, you get $1T.
What IS wrong and immoral is TAKING $1T by force. The government using force to take the money doesn't make it legitimate. It still violates property rights.
Milton Friedman:
“Tell me, is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed?”
“The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way.”
“The only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.”