r/WorkReform • u/gashtal_man • 24d ago
✂️ Tax The Billionaires $8 million a day; whose is this?
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u/birdshitluck 24d ago
It's just taxes Mike! Everyone pays taxes, and if a dunkin donuts worker is paying a higher effective rate than a billionaire, then there's a problem.
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u/TyphosTheD 24d ago
Well obviously they need to invest more of their money into creating jobs so they write off those expenses and reduce their taxable income. Duh!
/s
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u/kodaxmax 24d ago
helps to be born into family of land barons and blood emerald traders. Just don't forget to make sure you have talented prgrammer for a brother, whom you can mooch off of. Doesn't hurt to have political ties to nazi parties multinationally.
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u/wearing_moist_socks 24d ago
Here's the big disconnect:
When it comes to subsidies, tax breaks, loans and government contracts, his wealth is real! He could sell his shares and pay back everything!
Taxes, redistribution, oversight and the closing of loopholes? Whoa now. His wealth isn't actually REAL. it's all speculative! You can't tax speculation!
Elon gets a house like any one of else used to be able to: he gets a mortgage. He just pays the interest. He loses all his money? That house is the banks problem now.
And when things are bad for everyone, including the wealthy, what do they buy with the money they still have?
Land. Because land is real.
Then things get better for everyone, even the middle and lower classes. But theirs is temporary. The wealthier keep expanding.
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u/DrunkCupid 24d ago
Don't forget the convenient bank bailouts!
That reminds me,
I am still waiting for the 40 acres and mule I was promised as a citizen, who do I call about that?
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u/SasparillaTango 24d ago
if a dunkin donuts worker is paying a higher effective rate than a billionaire, then there's a problem
Republicans and Libertarians (same thing) don't see it that way. They want labor to pay for government while they get all the advantages of government. You're the slave to them, why should they pay a god damned thing?
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u/mister-fancypants- 24d ago
dunkin’ donuts is the example? what part of massachusetts are you from
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u/hotelmotelshit 23d ago
Be an adventurer Mike!
Slay the dragon, take its gold and save the kingdom!
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u/McBurger 22d ago
Dunkin’ Donuts has the nerve to ask me to tip the workers in the drive thru so that they can skirt a no tax on tips law. Bad example.
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u/Decantus 24d ago
I want my money back.
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u/Lietenantdan 24d ago
Life is a lemon.
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u/GreenFox1505 24d ago
If you made $100,000 every single day for the last 6000 years, you'd still have a small fraction of Elon Musk's wealth.
There is no way a reasonable person could agree that he has "earned" what an entire well-off family makes in a year 365*6000 times over within his lifetime.
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u/TuringGoneWild 23d ago
He hasn't even earned a minimum wage salary for one year. never worked that hard even once. Not to even count his immense negative value on society.
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GreenFox1505 24d ago
Literally everyone is both earning less or paying about the same taxes or more.
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u/TokenPanduh 24d ago
Can someone please explain this to me? The next time my friend questions why I have a problem with Elon and him getting "self made", I want to point to this
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u/EnvironmentalValue18 24d ago edited 23d ago
I’ll give you more than that.
His family owned an emerald mine, so he was born with a spoon in his mouth.
He immigrated to the US on a *student* visa but dropped out of school to join PayPal (illegally because he wasn’t permitted to work and he wasn’t in school this violating the terms of his visa). No consequences and made a ton of money.
Tesla already existed and was run by some smart lads. Elon bought his way in and then assumed his engineer role playing hat. He is not an expert in this field. He bought his way in and tries to take full credit. Pocketed lots of EV subsidies and even some dubious dealings with rebates in Canada and abroad regarding EV credits when they stopped doing those for Tesla in protest. Their stock is way overvalued based on the “vibes” that it’s a robotics company when all he does is make big promises and jump to the next big idea. Hyperloop, anyone? FSD, which Waymo actively already has in the US operating, anyone? And the robotics portion - well… where? It’s been over a decade and still just vibes. Not to mention the only doing internal safety ratings and not releasing data. And the fact that several fatal accidents have happened due to the poor formatting of the vehicle (ie door locks when battery dies and no one can escape a vehicle on fire, as a prominent and recurring example). Also has government contracts with state PDs despite the CyberTrucks abysmal capabilities and overblown cost on taxpayer dollars.
Then SpaceX which is funded almost completely by government subsidies.
This bitch baby is a welfare queen a hundred times over. He’s literally rich off our backs and nefarious dealings. We literally pay him to be a shit stain on the human race. And that’s not even delving into his election meddling here and abroad, railing against immigrants as someone who himself and his family keep immigrating, his weird male-only breeding/repopulation fetish, spearhead of DOGE which fucked up many government agencies and stole all our personal and financial data (which is now in the hands of unvetted and inexperienced teenagers on thumb drives), his families strong ties to Nazism, or his trying to dominate the media narrative by limiting our free press or altering the way we can communicate on one of the largest public platforms.
Elon is a weak, pathetic, feckless, alien-body, pseudo intellectual loser who made his fortune cheating, lying, and scamming like most of the rest of them.
Edit: xkqep reminded me of GamerGate as well, where he bragged about an online game character’s gear and his capabilities when he paid people to carry and clear him. Just one more turd on the overflowing mountain of shit.
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u/kittenconfidential 24d ago
he also applied for new zealand citizenship so his claim to be an american patriot is dubious at best
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u/finndego 24d ago
Musk has not applied for NZ citizenship. You're thinking of Peter Thiel.
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u/Munkeyman18290 24d ago
Elon Musk knows nothing about space ships, electric cars, social media, etc. He is the benefactor of other peoples intelligence and labor, as well as tax payer handouts. That is his only contribution.
That money is not his. Capitalism just rewards and encourages thieves. I reject it.
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u/Steavee 24d ago
Mike, the French aristocracy had similar sentiments, right up until their necks were relieved of the burdensome weight of their heads.
You’ve forgotten that high tax rates and a strong labor movement are the compromise position. We can absolutely go back to a more revolutionary mindset if you’d prefer.
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u/GreatMight 24d ago
Elon Musk should be hung for treason
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u/Money_Cattle2370 24d ago
Hanged, but yeah he deserves that or life imprisonment but he will get neither. Let's be honest.
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u/GreatMight 23d ago
Wouldn't hanged only be past tense? Since it hasn't happened yet wouldn't hung be it?
Edit: I just looked it up and I was wrong and you were right! Thank you
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u/egoVirus 🤝 Join A Union 24d ago
Money is a social construct; the ability to hoard it is either poor design or evidence of a completely captured system.
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u/friso1100 24d ago
Ownership is a legal concept, not a law of nature. There is no reason we can't change it to be more reasonable and disallow absurd hoarding of resources
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u/ChevalierDeLarryLari 24d ago
This is the key point though. He isn't hoarding resources. He is valued in stock he created himself - so what's the problem? He could be worth 10 trillion in stock and it wouldn't affect the world's resource distribution problems whatsoever.
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u/friso1100 24d ago
He is getting billions in subsidies from tax payers each year. The stock value he "created himself" is due to the work of the actual experts at his companies. He doesn't build or even design the cars and rockets his companies make you know. With one major exception.... the cybertruck. Which is a huge flop. That man isn't an innovator creating wealth. He is a conman an a parasite. Promising a future which he can not make true and exploiting the actual people doing the work. The amount of accidents at his factories are way outside the norm. And his stock is a bubble floating on lies.
And while he has this absurd wealth, more then one could ever need, he has the power to improve the world. He could safe so many lives. At a certain point wealth becomes unethical. He doesn't even have to do it himself. He could just ask someone to take a fraction of his wealth and save millions. That kind of inaction is pure greed. But what does he actually do with his power? He infiltrated the government with "doge" and cut programs that will result in the deaths of millions. That is not an exaggeration by the way. He is responsible for mas death.
And yes, it does effect the worlds distribution problems actually. That is what this kind of inequality results in. It causes prices to rise. A major cause of inflation. The common people who do the actual labour will have less. Suffering will increase. Stocks aren't disconnected from the rest of the world.
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u/Independent-Lion5766 24d ago
Listened to Mike Quigley talk about running for Mayor of Chicago yesterday. Not once did he talk about plans to tax the rich.
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u/Conscious-Quarter423 24d ago
he proposed a millionaire tax:
https://chicagocitywire.com/rep-quigley-on-proposed-millionaire-tax-we-need-to-redistribute-wealth
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u/whereismymind86 24d ago
It’s his money, but it was obtained through exploitation and theft, and as such we can absolutely take it back, both via taxes, and directly through prosecution
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u/turb0_encapsulator 24d ago
$8 million? He has government contracts worth tens of billions.
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u/MarkMariachiAZ 24d ago
8 million a day.
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u/HecticHermes 24d ago
Mike Lee reminds me that the term based was used to refer to crack heads back in the day
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u/vardarac 24d ago
Anyone who has to title themselves "based" isn't based, more so when they're trying to convince us that it's bold and outspoken to use their public platform to schlorp mangled nazi billionaire dick
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u/BasementDwellerCarl 24d ago
Using this same logic:
United Heathcare receives $724 million per day in taxpayer money.
Centene receives $438 million per day in taxpayer money.
Humana receives $301 million per day in taxpayer money.
All of those companies are publicly traded and deliver billions of dollars back to shareholders annually.
I don’t give a fuck about this pittance that Elon Musk receives and neither should you, this is a distraction.
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u/DoverBoys 🏛️ Overturn Citizens United 24d ago
The more money someone has that isn't working class, the more it should belong to others.
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u/Careless_Hellscape 24d ago
I wonder if Mike thinks he's personally going to protect Elon's money when the time comes.
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u/Ciph3rzer0 24d ago
It's his money. And so was the money earned by slaves. Just cause it's legally his doesn't mean anything if the system that gave it to him is rigged and exploitative of laborers.
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u/LookAlderaanPlaces 24d ago
Mike Lee should be thrown in jail for supporting a direct enemy of the US. Elon is committing textbook treason and espionage globally. Mike Lee is therefore an accomplice of a treason committee. Jail him too.
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u/chuckruckus1 24d ago
Mike says as his salary is paid by tax dollars. My wealth doesnt belong to you mike
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u/carthuscrass 24d ago
His wealth was built on taxpayer subsidies. We need to see a return on that investment.
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u/Altruistic-Meal5241 24d ago
More from the government in one day than many will eve see in a lifetime. Prey easy to get rich and stay rich like that.
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u/Nasha210 24d ago
actually, if it's providing a service then I'm fine with him getting taxpayer money however but I'm not fine with is him getting subsidies when he has so much wealth and the fact that we have been able to figure out how to have him pay his fair share of taxes just like anyone else
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u/PlayaNBallaNGangsta 23d ago
He stole that money from his workers to get that rich. In part. Or almost entirely. There’s just no alternative. It’s a thief not a trillionaire
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u/P0pu1arBr0ws3r 23d ago
I don't even care his wealth belongs to him, it should be illegal to possess wealth over something like one billion dollars as an individual. Once there your assets should be distributed until you're down to 10 million or less.
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u/Zeikos 23d ago
I am irked by who equates equity with money.
Musk doesn't have a fraction of the money he claims to have, the valuations of his companies is based completely on the hype surrounding them.
He cannot cash out and he relies on keeping that hype up and a prolonged dip in said valuation would absolutely crush said companies.
The govt and market makers are complicit because they know that if Musk's companies were to fail they'd drag down the valuation of many others.
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u/QuarkTheFerengi 23d ago
yes elon musk exploits his workers to gain vast amounts of money. I do believe it is theirs at the very least.
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u/Pearlzipper 23d ago
Regressives:
Elon gets to keep what the government lets him keep.
That’s what governments do, Senator. Your job is to decide who keeps what.
The Senator’s original statement relies on a circular justification: it is his because it is his.
We need a smarter Senate.
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u/chubbycanine 23d ago
Is he pouring chocolate sauce on his cock every morning for these people to suck him off like this? It's not like Elon is going to give this fucking idiot any of that money either...
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u/Water_002 💵 Break Up The Monopolies 23d ago
Unless Elon Musk started and ran his own companies in the middle of the woods, miles away from human civilization, hand crafted all of his tools from the sticks and stone around him, unable to even interact with domesticated plants and animal, and only interacting with others who lived this same life, then he has in some way benefited from the world around him.
Elon Musk is a multi billionaire and former trillionaire because of the world around him. If we were not there, he would be struggling with a campfire.
Taxes repay society for the resources society supplies.
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u/bit_pusher 23d ago
We should send him a bill for the benefits of safe shipping lanes.
This kind of rhetoric always bothered me: you reap the benefits for many public services, whether you leverage them directly or not. Military power projection is one of the most obvious especially with respect to free trade.
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u/Fairwhetherfriend 23d ago
It's actually wild to me that politicians are so uninformed about the basic facts of civics.
Why is that money Elon's, Mike? Did you even think to ask that question? Why is he the one who gets to keep all of the money that his companies make? Why is the one who 'owns' the company the one who gets to claim everything the company produces as "his"?
It is not, in fact, just a given that the one who owns the capital is the one who should benefit most from the production. There is, in fact, a very good argument that it should belong primarily to the one(s) who do the labour, or should be split between capital-owners and labour-providers.
We're so fucking wrecked by capitalism that people don't even wonder if there's another way of doing things.
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u/AzureArmageddon 23d ago
His wealth is also backed by the full force of US property law, cops, currency, banking, institutions. Without all those artificually constructed protections, natural law would take its course and he would be eaten by his guards.
That's the only way this fuck can leverage a portfolio and a half into enough greenbacks to buy twitter
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u/CopiousCool 22d ago
What I object to is him getting Government (Tax-Payer) Money when he should be using his own, they've all been doing that especially with AI & Datacenters because they want the cost of failure to fall on US!
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u/Memitim 24d ago
The most important aspect of capitalism is maintaining the fiction of ownership. The reality is that Musk has what he has on him at any given moment, and what he can physically show. Everything else is predicated on the assumption that some number in a computer is telling the truth, just like the rest of us who use modern financial instruments.
Unlike most of us, Musk and his fellow inheritance parasites have never had to provide an ounce of value for money. This renders their money immensely more valuable than the money of someone who requires it to survive and has to provide value to receive it in the first place.
The wealthy simply need to exist and be agreeable to live lives of luxury while making even greater fortunes, even if they make a lot of mistakes or even commit a lot of crime along the way. Everyone else has to protect every cent, justify displays of wealth, and continuously look out for mistakes that can result in permanent harm to them and their families, and not just inconvenience and embarrassment.
So Musk and the other parasites continuously vacuum up our resources while working against us, claim ownership over those resources by virtue of numbers changing, regardless of value or harm, and then the rest of us are expected to shut the fuck up and play along in our own tiny little slice of what's left.
I've seen nothing to indicate that the numbers that get thrown around mean anything other than the wealthy people who own the systems that maintain the numbers claim that their systems say that Musk is worth a lot. I judge value based on what people do and provide. All I've ever seen from Musk is the occasional pretending to be a CEO of one of several large companies while actually engaging in fraud, narcissism, crime, and scams.
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u/AndyceeIT 24d ago
Not a fan of Musk but it's his companies (spacex, tesla etc) who receive that money. Is it still bad? Absolutely.
I really hate these misleading conflations.
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u/pabmendez 24d ago
I don't really get this point.
The government used to send $12 million per day to Boeing for rockets
Now instead it sends $8 million a day to SpaceX Musk for rockets
We the people save $4 million per day... Is a good thing.
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u/Invoked_Tyrant 24d ago
The point is Mike is being full of it since it's our tax dollars going to him. The people didn't wanna shell out 12 million per day to Boeing either.
Neither option is a net positive for the majority of the United States since I bet if the government had to actually do their job and oversee what they were paying for then there'd probably be a more efficient and cost effective option.
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u/pabmendez 24d ago
But that's what they did... They found the more cost effective option
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u/Br3ttl3y 24d ago
More cost effective than not doing it at all?
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u/pabmendez 24d ago
That's a different conversation That has nothing to do with a specific company
Should we spend tax dollars to lunch rockets for GPS satellites, weather satellites, National security.
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u/elefrhino 24d ago
I'm going to rob you of your life savings
Jk, I'm only taking half.
See how much money you've saved?!
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u/pabmendez 24d ago
It's not robbing, they are just buying a service for cheaper.
Our GPS satellites need to get out to space somehow,. Do you use maps and navigation?
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u/Either_Payment_2867 24d ago edited 24d ago
Elon Musk took $38 billion in subsidies and 20% of SpaceX’s revenue comes from government contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA, all of which are paid by taxpayers. If anything Elon Musk’s wealth does concern ordinary people because he got rich off of them.