Willow Brook 💜Mar 29

Honestly the fact that Elon ain't even a billionaire if you counted the green he could pull outta the bank says a lot about the scam of modern economics.

The vast majority of his reported wealth is just the stocks he has in his companies, which means it's tied to how valuable people think Tesla, SpaceX, etc are worth. If something happened to make people not care about them anymore, his net worth would plummet.

This can apply to the economy as a whole. Depressions and recessions happen when the value of something changes drastically and people panic about it, exacerbating the issue.
You're rich when there's a chasm of difference between how much you actually own and how much you've convinced the world you own.

I don't think being rich is inherently bad, but I do think that it's extremely difficult to attain that kind of wealth without lots of other people getting put out in some way. A few of them come by it honestly through sheer luck. I think David Tran of Huy Fong and whoever founded Costco are on this list. Not entirely without controversy, but saints in comparison.

Show threadBurrsonMar 29

@Paradox Considering how vastly overpriced tesla is currently, I do expect his worth to plumit at some point.

That said, you don't need to have a billion in your account. If musks needs money, due to his stock, he has practically unlimited 0% credit. I am pretty sure if he really wanted he could go to the bank and take out a billion

Show threadWillow Brook 💜Mar 29
@Burrson
I think there's a specific procedure for that, if he needs to use stock. Sometimes you just sell it (liquidating), sometimes it's just collateral.
Show threadBurrsonMar 29
@Paradox I am pretty sure you try avoiding liquidating, cause you'd need to pay taxes on that. You don't need to pay taxes on credit
Show threadWillow Brook 💜Mar 29
@Burrson Sure, yeah.
(doesn't understand this shit at all)
Show threadBurrsonMar 29

@Paradox it quite simple, if you sell shares, you pay capital gains tax of about 20%. But if you go to a bank and give them the shares as collateral for the money they are worth they give you a pretty much 0% apr loan.

That is if you are rich enough. Cause Elon musk ain't gonna default. And if he does, they can just sell the shares.

That being said. If his company's tank massively, the banks are gonna get nervous and start taking interest, which would considerably hurt him

Show threadWillow Brook 💜Mar 29

@Burrson It is really weird that actual money gets taxed, but things worth money aren't... unless they're expensive things like houses, cars, boats, shit like that.
Yet stocks aren't taxed. But I guess I could "barter" using crates of smartphones or shirts or whatever?

Also I just had to look up apr and it's literally just compound interest rate. XD

Show threadBurrsonMar 29

@Paradox oh yea it it is XD

Sry, sometimes I am little to much into finance and forget what is common knowledge.

As for the taxes. Normally everything gets taxed. I am not 100% sure how the US handles it. But here in Germany I could pay you potatoes or smartphones and those would be taxed against their fair market value.

It is just that sitting wealth doesn't get taxed (anymore, there used to be a tax :( ). Combine that with loan logic and it's, in my opinion, low-key tax fraud.

Show threadBurrsonMar 29
@Paradox loans are a weird thing anyway tho, if you ever have a few hours I can infodumb you on government loans :D
Show threadWillow Brook 💜
@Burrson I'll always listen to what friends have to say to me. ❤
Mar 29 at 2:11pmWeb
Show threadBurrsonMar 29
@Paradox thats sweet ❤️