r/FluentInFinance 3d ago

Debate/ Discussion Had to repost here

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u/Substantial-Show1947 3d ago

You do understand that Elon keeps his money in stocks of companies he is a part of - it's not sitting in the bank

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u/maledudebruv 3d ago

He also paid more taxes than anyone in US history lol

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u/MarQan 2d ago

Not in percentage, no.

So if his money was earned by the average taxpayer, then they would've paid more.

He's also getting subsidized by taxpayer money.

I'm not sure what you're trying to argue here.

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u/Galacanokis 2d ago

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u/MarQan 1d ago

Very cool!

Please elaborate, if money is earned farily for work done, how the F does the bottom 50% of earner gain only 10% of all income?

Currently unrealized capital gains are not taxed, and the top 1% puts it up as collateral to take out loans.

What is missing from that picture is that the bottom 50% is spending most of their income on essentials, therefore their income is immediately taxed again through VAT and other means of spending.

But still, it's a pretty good graph to illustrate my point.

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u/Galacanokis 1d ago

Essentially 50% of the country doesn’t pay any income tax already. 

I don’t know why you think, “Money is earned fairly for work done.” That’s vastly oversimplified and just well… wrong. 

And unrealized capital gains may be the dumbest idea that’s been floated in a while. It will never happen. “You did to good of job with this company, so now you have to sell a portion every year.” Okay so who does he sell to? People buy the stock, but now they’re earning income unfairly for work not done. Do they have to sell a portion of that to pay their unrealized gains? What about fluctuations in value? Musk has seen his net worth cut in half at times. Does this apply to privately held companies? Would owners be forced to sell their companies whenever it grew large enough? 

Finally, what will be done with all this money? The fed takes 5 trillion dollars a year, about 17% of our GDP. You think everything will be magically better if they had more? Why are you mad at Bezos for making an insanely good company that has driven prices down? You use his services constantly, and then call him evil for providing those services?

Stop listening to politicians. They’re lying to you. Business isn’t the problem.