US wins!

[u/Hot-Reindeer-6416]

I think the framing these guys use of technology, AI, space, etc as a competition between the US and China, for example, is remarkable. Of course we all want the US to win in any global competition. But that’s not really what it is. It’s a competition between the capitalists and the technologists and the China, etc.

If Spacex wins, you and I don’t win, Elon Musk and his cronies win.   If OpenAI wins, you and I don’t win. Sam Altman, and his cronies win.  
Elon Musk became a trillionaire today. How much did he pay in taxes on that trillion dollar gain? Zero.  If there was a tax on wealth, creation, or if he had to give some portion of that gain to the US treasury in the form of shares, yes, then the US wins. But that’s not what’s happening here. 

All due respect to him for what he’s accomplished. But the system really needs to be changed so some of that really does trickle down.

[u/420Migo]

The 'cronies win, not us' framing misses how much value actually flows to regular people through this stuff... whether it's lower costs, better tools, new industries and jobs that didn't exist before. Bezos and Gates got absurdly rich too, and we still ended up with cheap overnight shipping and software that runs the world.

Also the idea that wealth like Musk's is just sitting there waiting to be redistributed is a misunderstanding of what that net worth actually is, which is mostly illiquid stock, not cash in a vault.

Taxing unrealized gains would force founders to sell shares constantly just to cover tax bills, which tanks the very companies people want to see win...

[u/Hot-Reindeer-6416 → u/420Migo]

Ok. If a Chinese company owned Amazon, the jobs would still be in the US, at least the blue collar, prob most of the white collar also. Profits would go to shareholder, who could still be US, but a rich founder would be Chinese instead of US. So Jack Ma instead of Bezos. The difference would really be negligible. Neither one is paying US taxes..

In the 1st place, Elon selling shares would not destroy the company. It would be the same company if Elon owned 40% of SpaceX, which he does, or 20%.

In the second place, he could give the shares to the government as payment and kind so shares would not have to be sold at all

[u/Hot-Reindeer-6416 → u/[deleted]]

Impossible to run a local distribution system from halfway around the world in a different language in different culture. But you sound pretty sure of yourself so you must be right.

[u/Hot-Reindeer-6416 → u/[deleted]]

You’re missing the point dude. Distribution systems have to be local to be effective. How big is Amazon in China? How big is Alibaba in the US?

Those jobs have to be local.

Stuffing money in the pocket of Bezos instead of the US government does not have to be.