I am put off by the judge ruling against it because “it’s unfair to shareholders”. It’s unfair to a lot of people, especially in the wake of layoffs. If the law does not protect the basic necessities for working Americans, then the law needs changing.
How many of Elon’s workers could get paid a living wage for that $56bn? If he passed it up could he stop trying to oppose unions and make some life-changing concessions for his employees?
Even putting that aside, how is that money going to change Elon’s life? As in the daily experience of what he eats, vacation opportunities, housing, etc? Because money is kind of like water - it’s incredibly important if you don’t have enough, but once you have more than you could use the only reason to keep hoarding it is restricting others’ access for pride, greed, or leverage (i.e. purchasing influence).
I’m not even as far left of center as I probably sound. I believe that different economic classes should exist or people aren’t motivated - you need to pay surgeons well in order to get enough surgeons. However, “the floor” should be raised to ensure housing/food/utilities security at the cost of “the ceiling” being lowered (or existing at all). Oxfam says a wealth tax of 5% on multi-millionaires/billionaires would solve world hunger in 10 years, lift 2 billion out of poverty, and much more. As of 2023 the bottom half of the USA, as in about 170ish million citizens, only have access to 3% of America’s wealth while the top 10% control just over 66% of wealth. Deals like this, coupled with the mass layoffs across multiple industries, is only making that obscene inequality worse.
How many of Elon’s workers could get paid a living wage for that $56bn?
There are 140,000 employees, so each one could get $400,000. That is WAY more than a liveable wage. He could give every single person in his company $200,000 and STILL have $28B leftover for his bonus. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a billion, and I’m a pretty imaginative person who makes a lot of money. If someone said to me, “I can give you $56B, or I can give you $28B and 140,000 other people $200,000. You choose.” I would gladly give all of those 140,000 people handjobs by me personally along with that $200k. It might take awhile to give all those handjobs, but I’d commit to it for $28B.
It would take 972 days of 12 hours per day giving 5 minute long handjobs. Roughly 3 years of indentured servitude to get $28B. Worth it.
This news is frustrating:
I’m not even as far left of center as I probably sound. I believe that different economic classes should exist or people aren’t motivated - you need to pay surgeons well in order to get enough surgeons. However, “the floor” should be raised to ensure housing/food/utilities security at the cost of “the ceiling” being lowered (or existing at all). Oxfam says a wealth tax of 5% on multi-millionaires/billionaires would solve world hunger in 10 years, lift 2 billion out of poverty, and much more. As of 2023 the bottom half of the USA, as in about 170ish million citizens, only have access to 3% of America’s wealth while the top 10% control just over 66% of wealth. Deals like this, coupled with the mass layoffs across multiple industries, is only making that obscene inequality worse.
There are 140,000 employees, so each one could get $400,000. That is WAY more than a liveable wage. He could give every single person in his company $200,000 and STILL have $28B leftover for his bonus. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a billion, and I’m a pretty imaginative person who makes a lot of money. If someone said to me, “I can give you $56B, or I can give you $28B and 140,000 other people $200,000. You choose.” I would gladly give all of those 140,000 people handjobs by me personally along with that $200k. It might take awhile to give all those handjobs, but I’d commit to it for $28B.
It would take 972 days of 12 hours per day giving 5 minute long handjobs. Roughly 3 years of indentured servitude to get $28B. Worth it.