James GleickI’m seeing lots of schadenfreude about the guy “losing” $200 billion. It benefits no one. A better way would be to tax the megabillionaires fairly: i.e., returning the bulk of their wealth to the society that made them rich in the first place.
People sometimes forget: After a certain point (let’s say, oh, a hundred milion dollars), the extra wealth is no longer about buying more stuff or living better. It’s about power. Musk buying Twitter is a case in point.
JEG@JamesGleick I'm all for taxing the megarich, but I'm not sure 'it benefits no one'. If money is power then Musk losing power in itself benefits society at large. Plus if Musk is losing money because consumers are turning away from Tesla to other electric cars, or turning away from Twitter to other less toxic platforms - Mastodon? - then it may be good thing as well.
Why not have both - the megarich losing money and being taxed?
Why not have both - the megarich losing money and being taxed?
@JoseEdGomes I agree, but I don’t see that he’s lost any power.
Nebulous Menace (Sandy B.)@JamesGleick @JoseEdGomes He's lost a lot. He had a name that made people go "Let's lend him ten billion and see what happens." He could straight up lie and nobody would call him on it. [examples in next post] He used to be able to call a meeting with the POTUS. He's lost a lot of levers.
@JamesGleick @JoseEdGomes (Lie examples: "If anyone gets hurt on the factory floor, I'll do their job for a day." Swappable Tesla batteries, for tax breaks. $35,000 EVs. Many others.)