Shareholders of Tesla just endorsed a contract with Elon Musk worth $1 trillion!
The dramatic inequality of wealth and income in the U.S. upsets many people, even middle-class people. The pain is spreading. In the past few months, many thousands of workers and corporate executives were laid off. What does the future hold for them?
The party in charge of the federal government has closed down the government rather than continue health insurance benefits for millions of their fellow citizens. The Republicans have gone to court and fought to cut off SNAP–food stamps–to feed the poorest Americans.
Yesterday, a federal Judge ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP. The Trump administration is going to a higher court in hopes of reversing the order. Let the hungry eat cake!
All the while, Speaker Mike Johnson sent House members home to avoid negotiating any changes in a cruel budget. When asked, he lies and says that Republicans are fighting to save the very programs they are killing. Lying seems to come naturally to him.
Here is the Trump ideal: Stockholders of Tesla just voted to award $1 trillion to Elon Musk if the company continues to prosper.
Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a plan that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, two days after New Yorkers elected a tax-the-rich candidate as their next mayor.
These discrete moments offered strikingly different lessons about America and who deserves how much of its wealth.
At Tesla, based in the Austin, Texas, area, shareholders have largely bought into a winner-takes-all version of capitalism, agreeing by a wide margin to give Mr. Musk shares worth almost a trillion dollars if the company under his management achieves ambitious financial and operational goals over the next decade.
But halfway across the country, in the home to Wall Street, Zohran Mamdani’s victory served as a reminder of the frustrations many Americans have with an economic system that has left them struggling to afford basics like food, housing and child care.
Is this the American Dream?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Interesting to note that the only commentary on the nature of the benchmarks that Tesla must meet in order for the shares to be awarded to Musk is “ambitious.” No mention that the contract covers a ten year period and the stock must rise about six times today’s price, to about $6,000 a share, plus other aggressive marks such as delivering 20 million new vehicles and a million human-like robots (from zero today). Over 75% of the shareholder votes were cast in favor of the pay package, indicating that folks felt Musk could add tremendous value to their investments.
That said, the issue of wealth inequality is a serious and growing concern that will require a lot of creativity to solve or it will eventually be solved through revolution. Confiscating wealth from those who have earned it (or whose forbears earned it) and redistributing it to those who have not is a non-starter. I think the process will have to be gradual, phased in over years and will need incentives for the wealthy to give up some of their riches.
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Dawn,
I appreciate that you are willing to recognize that wealth and income inequality is a problem. Never in U.S. history were the gaps as large as they are today. I am sure we agree that we don’t want a revolution.
When 1% own multiple super yachts and mansions and private jets while millions stand in line for food, this is unsustainable.
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No one “earns” billions, let along trillions of dollars. “There are basically 5 ways to accumulate a billion dollars: Profiting from a monopoly, Insider-trading, political payoffs, fraud and inheritance.” –Robert Reich (yes, I know, you probably think Reich is some kind of pinko commie….) Incidentally, he left out wage theft.
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I think billionaires should be subject to high taxes, as in the Eisenhower era (no billionaires then!). Wealth inequality is bad for social stability and for human beings.
But I don’t that all wealth is the result of the factors named by Reich.
Bloomberg grew up in a middle class family. He invented a new kind of computer that everyone in the financial services industry wanted.
Bezos created Amazon. Not theft just ingenuity.
The Turkish guy who created the first effective COVID drug came from nothing.
What’s wrong is our tax system. No party has the will to impose high taxes on people with high wealth. Check out the taxes during the Eisenhower years.
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Bezos “earned” his billions by shorting his workers and his sellers and by monopoly power. Entire books have been written about his corrupt methods. I’d guess Bloomberg has a similarly checkered record.
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Working for Amazon is a nightmare. Pay is low and attrition is high.
But no one is forced to work there.
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So someone who creates a business, works 80+ hour weeks for years, takes little or no salary in order to reinvest earnings in the business, hires people and contributes to communities, and eventually takes the company public and reaps the benefits of his/her sacrifices doesn’t make multi-millionaire Reich’s list of ways to get rich? Fascinating.
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Dawn,
I don’t know of many billionaires who fit that description. Certainly not Trump. Not the Waltons.
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Sam Walton grew up poor. He was known for his work ethic and his frugality. Many would say he was the embodiment of the American dream. That his heirs became spectacularly wealthy could certainly engender a discussion of inheritance taxes, but that sidesteps the point that he was very much a self-made man–not one of Reich’s cynical causes of wealth accumulation.
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Dawn – Walton made his fortune through monopoly power – undercutting mom & pop stores and destroying small communities.
Diane – Saying no one is forced to work for Amazon is like saying no one is forced to shop at Walmart. For a lot of people there is basically no other choice – that’s what monopoly power does.
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Not analogous.
Walmart drives mom-and-pop stores out of business. They buy in such volume that no one can compete. Worse, if they don’t have enough profit, they close and move on, leaving shopping deserts and dead towns with empty stores.
There are other places to work besides Amazon. It does not have a monopoly of jobs. There is huge turnover in its workforce because conditions are harsh.
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Exactly, Dienne.
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The simple-minded Horatio Alger stories about “self-made” people who started with nothing and built it all through sacrifice and hard work are all bullshit. They hide the nastiness that actually got the person to exceptional status. Here’s a corrective: Read the scholarly and fascinating biography of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow called Titan.
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Thanks, Bob. I’ll look into that book.
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Must be a miserable life in victim world where anyone who is successful could only have achieved success through criminality and inhumanity. Sam Walton started leveraged to the teeth, owning a single store with multiple competitors. He outworked others and took risks that they were not willing to take. Yes, competition creates winners and losers. Lots of “mom and pop” stores succeed in markets that Walmart serves by being smarter and more agile and providing better customer service. Lots of people hate competition, often because they are unwilling to do what it takes to compete. Watch what happens to NYC as the take from the successful and give to the unsuccessful attitude takes hold.
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Dawn,
The descendants of Sam Walton inherited billions. None of them worked and sacrificed to get rich.
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The discussion was about Sam Walton, not his heirs. If you want to discuss inheritance taxes, feel free, but that is not the topic at hand. The Walton Foundation has donated hundreds of millions to charities. BTW, one of Walton’s children, a former Green Beret, was killed in a plane crash, one owns part of the Broncos, and one is an outspoken critic of Trump.
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Walmart has hollowed out the small towns of America by forcing mom-and-pop stores to close. As a giant chain of superstores, Walmart can offer lower prices than any neighborhood store. The small stores close in towns within 50 miles of Walmart. If Walmart decides that store isn’t making enough profit, they close it and move on. Leaving behind small towns with “for rent” signs all over their Main Street.
The Walton family gives “hundreds of millions” to charity? Easy to do–and a nice tax write off–when every member of the family sits on more than $50 billion! Chump change!
The Walton Foundation is the biggest private funder of charter schools, which are non-union and compete for students with real public schools. Their charters do the same thing as their stores: they destroy communities to enrich one of America’s richest families. No one has done more to undermine the middle class in the U.S. than the Waltons.
I’m sorry that a member of the Walton family died while piloting his private plane, but that doesn’t change the fact that Sam went to public school, worked hard, and left a fortune for his heirs.
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I’m sorry that you think that there is something wrong about someone working hard and leaving the fruits of that labor to his heirs.
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While pondering income inequality, we should consider that Musk in on track to become our first trillionaire while the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour since 2009.
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If history is any guide, and of course, it is, then we know that the rich will continue to push their toy until it breaks. They always have.
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I feel that great wealth generally comes with a process through which the person getting the profit finds a way to shift the real cost of the effect his idea has on society it alters. Super fund clean up does give testimony to this phenomenon, but more subtle effects on society are often of no concern to those who “innovate,”
if Elon gets rich from robots, will he shell out millions to re- train workers idled by his robots? Don’t bet on it.
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Why should he? Are you suggesting that it is the responsibility of an innovator to retrain any individual affected in a negative way by the application of said innovation? Individuals are responsible for themselves and for their journey through the working world. A wise business leader invests in her employees, but is not obligated to do so.
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The mindset one finds in the replies by Dawn are the reason why we need a council of indigenous grandmothers instead of a president and Congress.
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All “rights.” No responsibilities.
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But it’s the standard brainwashed mythological system in our culture.
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I understand why Musk needs all that money.
I’ve read that Musk’s goals are twofold, and he is working hard to make both of those dreams come true.
Musk is already fathering a master race with multiple women.
Elon Musk purchased a $35 million family compound in Austin, Texas, to house his children with multiple women. The compound reportedly aims to keep his younger children with their mothers close by for “scheduling time” with him. Reports indicate he has fathered at least 11 children with three women and has concerns about low birth rates.
Still, he hasn’t reached Mars yet, where he plans move the master race, he’s fathered single handed with a herd of fertile women.
Once they reach Mars, it will be easier for Musk to keep the master race he is fathering pure. He’ll be the only male there who isn’t female or a eunuch.
Elon Musk plans to colonize Mars using SpaceX’s Starship system, which is a fully reusable rocket designed to transport people and cargo. His ultimate goal is to establish a self-sustaining city on Mars for millions of people, making humanity a multi-planetary species. The initial uncrewed missions are planned for 2026, with the first manned missions potentially following a few years later, though the timeline is ambitious.
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If you live to be one hundred, you would have to “earn” over $27,000 every single day from birth onward to make one billion. Does anyone seriously think anyone actually “earns” that much? Let alone hundreds of billions, let alone a trillion?
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Does anyone seriously think anyone actually “earns” that much?
Exactly right, Dienne. But thinking isn’t many people’s strong suit.
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