Musk $1T net worth is not real. It’s an illiquid, non-marked-to-market measure of his influence and control. It is a measure of how much faith his religious followers put into him. I’m saying this partially because I think he is a con man but also very very valuable to a lot of people, and partially because it’s stupid to then speak about his net worth in terms of liquid things like taxes.
A wealth tax would force illiquid power brokers to mark to market, which would collapse their wealth and thus the tax revenue. If Elon had to sell 5% of what he owned every year by selling shares, his valuation would collapse, and so would the tax revenue (and so would the companies). You could tax his company profits, but that’s only something like $30B cumulative. So 5% of that is $1.5B over the last 15 years? Why even bother? His impact on GDP is basically zero.
The stock market is mostly a mirage, owned almost entirely by the rich and the old, which is a tiny part of the total economic pie. It keeps going up because inflation is out of control. Fix inflation and the valuations that disgust you go away on their own.
Musk $1T net worth is not real. It’s an illiquid, non-marked-to-market measure of his influence and control. It is a measure of how much faith his religious followers put into him. I’m saying this partially because I think he is a con man but also very very valuable to a lot of people, and partially because it’s stupid to then speak about his net worth in terms of liquid things like taxes.
A wealth tax would force illiquid power brokers to mark to market, which would collapse their wealth and thus the tax revenue. If Elon had to sell 5% of what he owned every year by selling shares, his valuation would collapse, and so would the tax revenue (and so would the companies). You could tax his company profits, but that’s only something like $30B cumulative. So 5% of that is $1.5B over the last 15 years? Why even bother? His impact on GDP is basically zero.
The stock market is mostly a mirage, owned almost entirely by the rich and the old, which is a tiny part of the total economic pie. It keeps going up because inflation is out of control. Fix inflation and the valuations that disgust you go away on their own.
SpaceX IPO so perfect for right now. A company without profit, sold on a market detached from reality, based on fake promises about things it will never do. Layers and layers of bullshit.