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Originally Posted by David Atkatz
Yeah. How much taxes paid? Hmmm....
Elon doesn't pay any.
I wonder how Jeff is doing?
Charities? Hmmmm...
You tell me, Hank, How much have Elon and Jeff given to charity? And to what charities?
Gimme a break. They could each afford to do incredible good worldwide. And without compromising one iota of their standard of living.
But do they?
No.
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Are taxes and charities the only ways people contribute to society? Jeff and Elon's companies make lots of money because people voluntarily choose to work for them, and voluntarily choose to buy from them. That's ordinary people deciding they want to engage with these companies, because they've decided it benefits their lives to do so.
Millions of people have been able to carve out a living from direct or indirect employment created by Jeff and Elon. Millions of others have gotten their first jobs, so even if they weren't making enough to support a large family, they had their feet on the lower rung of the economic ladder, and with a good work ethic, they can advance from there.
And by the way, who sets the tax code, Jeff, Elon, or Congress. Hmmmm...
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Atkatz
And are you really serious about them needing extreme (if by "extreme' you really mean "obscene") wealth as a motivator? Do you think that if we cut Musk's $400B fortune down to, say, $100B (Or his $1T Tesla pay package down to, oh, I don't know, say another $100B), he'd lose all his motivation and just lay about, drinking beer and playing video games?
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Spoken like a common thief. What right do "we" have to simply take from others? Do you teach your kids that it's ok to take from people who have more than them? Again, that's the rationalization/justification of a common criminal. And it's envy and jealousy at its worst.
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Atkatz
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." - Abraham Lincoln, 3 December 1861
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A 160+ year old quote from a politician does not make a compelling, or even coherent, argument.