Elon Musk just paid $11 billion in taxes. Is that trickle down in action?

[Anonymous]

Everyone knows that Elon Musk has gotten really rich recently. Now, he will pay $11 billion in taxes to the federal government. Does this trickle down to the rest of us? Examples could include: roads, healthcare, social security, wages for government workers and people in the military. Is that correct?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/20/investing/elon-musk-11-billion-dollars-taxes/index.html

Yes, that is correct.

No, that is not trickle down!

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[WindAtMyBack]

That's a hell of a lot of tax. Usually the uber wealthy hold their wealth in stock, and don't have super high incomes. If he paid that much he must have sold a large amount of stock in a single year.

[Asker]

Yes, according to the article, he sold $27 billion worth of stock.

[WindAtMyBack]

I just read the article. I didn't know that exercising stock options was taxable income. That's just converting the options into actual shares. Normally stocks is not taxable until you sell it. Since he had to sell stock to cover the tax on the options, he was taxed twice on essentially the same shares.

[OddBeMe]

Firstly, I just see him complaining about his tax bill. Not that he actually paid it. Secondly, I would like to see the receipt and what tax loopholes he used, like trump, to get out of paying any of it.

[Asker]

Of course he paid it. He has to. Even a website called "inequality. org" doesn't disagree with that.
inequality.org/.../

[OddBeMe]

Nothing in your article says he “paid”.

[Anonymous]

No. It still works out that the 1% take that majority of all the money keeping people's wages low. So naturally if they are taking all the money they will pay the most of the taxes.

[Asker]

But the people who work for him probably make higher wages than most people in the world.

[Opinion Owner]

It's a minority that work for him. It's all about channelling the money uo

[WindAtMyBack]

"the 1% take that majority of all the money keeping people's wages low"

That's not how it works. Not even close.

[Opinion Owner]

@WindAtMyBack that's exactly how it works, it's how it's always worked. Feudalism 2.0

[WindAtMyBack]

No it is NOT how it works. Those people don't get their money FROM people. They don't even have money. Read the article. He sold stock because he didn't have any money to pay his taxes. He doesn't even get a salary or bonus.

When you hear about someone with XYZ billion dollars that is NOT money and they didn't get it FROM anyone. That's just not how it works.

[Opinion Owner]

@WindAtMyBack what you are referring to is the mechanism that funnels the money up.

[Asker]

But then it comes back down. Musk is funneling $11 billion back down.

[WindAtMyBack]

"the mechanism that funnels the money up"

I'll answer this in a general way first, not the current situation with Musk. The short answer is that the money didn't funnel up. That's because it's not money. The money doesn't exist. When you hear about these uber rich people, that is net worth, not money. Net worth and money are two VERY different things.

To explain:

Let's say you have 100 houses. They are all exactly the same, and worth exactly the same amount. These houses are sold for 100K each. 90 of them are sold to 90 different people. 10 of them are sold to one person. The total value of the houses = 100 * 100K = 10 million dollars.

Now one person decides to sell the house. They try to get a little more out of it and sell it for 110K. Now 110K is the new "market value" of the houses. All 100 houses are now worth 110K. They are exactly the same house as before. The owners don't own anything they didn't own before. But all their net worth increased.

The 90 people had their net worth increase by 10K each. The person who owned 10 houses had their net worth increase by 100K.

Only 10K additional money was added. But the total value of all houses increased by a million dollars. The only money was the 10K. The other 990K is not money. That money didn't come "from" any place. It didn't funnel up. Nobody paid it. It doesn't even exist.

It's the same thing with the uber rich. The money doesn't exist.

[Opinion Owner]

@WindAtMyBack when you keep wages low it doesn't matter the price of houses. Time and again we are witnessesing wealth grabs. Poor get poorer rich get richer. This happened b4 I dee the robber barons of the gilded age

[WindAtMyBack]

You totally didn't understand what I said. The houses is just a way to explain how it works.

You are not listening. There is no wealth grab. The money does not come "from" anyone. It can't come from anyone because it does not exist.

The poor do not get poorer. That is simply not true. As a mater of fact, the poor get richer.

[Anonymous]

Elon got ripped off by the system.

[Anonymous]

Trickle into politicians pockets.

[jamesgoldman]

Correct

[Asker]

Kind of, but then they use to help people to some degree. Examples include Medicare and Social Security. All the federal departments like the Department of Education and Health and Human Services will get some too. It will help ensure that the men and women in our military have middle-class lifestyles.

[Opinion Owner]

Good governance is when 30¢ on the dollar go to those that need it. Bad charity is when 70¢ on the dollar go to those that need it. Government is terrible at charity.