According to Bloombergs Billionaires Index, Elon Musk, America's dumbest smart man, saw his net worth increase by $36.2 billion Monday due to an increase in Tesla stock prices. This record-breaking increase in wealth places Musk at the top with $289 billion. However, Republicans in Congress are preventing them from taxing billionaires.
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Tesla, which Musk started but pretends he didn't, saw its stock price rise on Monday after Hertz, a struggling car rental company, announced that it would buy 100,000 Tesla electric cars. Although the cars won't be available at Hertz locations until 2022, Tesla is already seeing gains and has surpassed a $1 trillion market value on Monday.
Alphabet and Microsoft are the only other companies to have surpassed $1 trillion in market value, while Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft were also there. However, Facebook's market value has fallen below $1 trillion since it achieved this milestone.
According to Bloomberg News, Musk's rise in wealth was greater than the previous record of China's Zhong Shanshan, whose wealth soared to $32 billion within a single day after his beverage company went public. While Musk did not receive $36 billion in cash Monday, it is important to recognize that billionaires do not have to be defended. However, he still has more wealth than anyone else.
Musk, who has received literally billions in government subsidies over the years, piqued fear that Democrats would raise taxes on middle-class Americans Monday. This was in response to a tweet about raising taxes for billionaires.
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Musk tweeted Monday that eventually they run out money from other people and then they come after you, half-quoting Margaret Thatcher, the late UK Prime Minister.
This is a pretty high amount of money, especially for the richest person on the planet. This is another example of a person who has greatly benefited from U.S. government assistance for his businesses, including SpaceX and Tesla. Musk is also able to pay less taxes than average Americans at times. According to ProPublica, Musk paid $0 federal income taxes in 2018.
Musk's tax bills do not reflect his wealth, with the exception of the year when he had more than a million dollars in stock options. He paid $68,000 federal income tax in 2015. It was $65,000 in 2017, and it was zero in 2018. He had a tax rate of 3.27% between 2014 and 2018.
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Since the Democrats are unable to get their act together, Musk has probably little to worry about new taxes. According to the Associated Press the Dems' latest plan to create a new tax on billionaires for unrealized capital gains is deadlocked. This was after a tax on corporations and the wealthy was blocked by Sen. Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Sen. Kyrsten Silena (Arizona), who essentially sided with Republicans. Sinema recently spoke with President Joe Biden, who stated that he doesn't support increasing taxes on the rich.
Musk is worth almost $100 billion more today than anyone else on the planet. This compares to Jeff Bezos who is worth $193 billion. You shouldn't be afraid to ask what Musk and other billionaires owe society for obtaining those riches. Republicans believe that this would discourage innovation.
