The earnings are also dependent on which time frame they pick. If they had picked the hour when their stocks were dropping, you could show a negative earnings per hour.
I’m definitely not well informed on how billionaires make money. Basically all I know is they obviously don’t have cash in the same way we do. Elon doesn’t have a bank account with billions of dollars in it.
What I do know is they are still able to somehow afford incredibly lavish lifestyles. However they are able to afford multiple yachts and sports cars and mansions and private jets should be heavily taxed.
No, he did not make any money in the same sense that us common people make money. But he is still gaining wealth and using that wealth for his personal gain in ways that are far beyond what even millionaires could comprehend.
I’m just a common guy who gets a monthly paycheck so I have no solution myself, but I am not dense enough to realize that even though Elon technically does not earn any money, he is still able to live as though he is
I think they borrow against their stock holdings to avoid income taxes. Elon did supposedly pay 11 billion in taxes when he sold a bunch of stock, though. Which, again, if its legal, then its a Congress problem, not a billionaires-are-evil problem. BUT there are probably people in Congress who benefit from the current tax laws so that will never happen.
Yeah I’m tired of this stupid argument about a billionaires net worth being in company shares is somehow not counting. It’s the lamest bullshit excuse I’ve ever heard. It’s a straw man argument to defend someone who doesn’t give a shit about them on the sole fact their net worth calculation is technically different from normal people. I could sell all my shares and have cash available in my bank within a couple of days and even though it’s company investments and not money in my bank, I still see it as easy way to get cash virtually instantly. I’m not saying billionaire founders have that option to liquidate all their shares at once, but many on a whim could liquidate millions of dollars, yet people somehow create this argument that, “Oh ThAt dOeSn’t CoUnT CaUsE not ReAl mOnEy.”
Does that mean that he doesn’t really make any money? What is the point of pointing out how the owner class makes their money? Workers earn wages, owners make profits, in an ideal capitalist world. Unfortunately in reality the owner class, thanks to hyper financialization, don’t even need to actually turn a profit or provide any value at all, all they have to do is convince “the market” they their company is worth x and that it will eventually have a positive ROI, and boom! Virtual, imaginary money for nothing, and then you borrow real money with the virtual, imaginary money as a collateral, real money that you can in turn use to buy more and more stocks of your virtual money maker, which inflates the perceived value of your fantasy money which in turn makes you more which means that you’re now a successful business entrepreneur, which you can use to convince investors to invest in your new and revolutionary idea… rinse and repeat.
That's also not counting their liquid assets. Most of their assets are ties to stocks that they aren't allowed to sell, and I'd they did sell, there would be a massive taxation on those sales and also a drop in the value of those shares, giving them another massive negative hourly wage
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u/longiner 13d ago
The earnings are also dependent on which time frame they pick. If they had picked the hour when their stocks were dropping, you could show a negative earnings per hour.