Tesla and SpaceX don't make a profit or pay dividends. My guess is he finances his entire life from taking on debt which is secured against his stock.
So how exactly are people like him supposed to just give money away? What happens to the stock he owns then? Would he forgo control of his companies?
How would he pay taxes on that income anyway?
Lots of questions the billionaires-shouldn't-exist crowd have no concept of.
Your mockery is ill-directed, and in the context of a post about someone whose corporate wealth was able to be donated to charity, in really poor taste.
Ever heard of Zip2 and Paypal?
Your resentment and jealousy based communist thinking is pretty ugly.
Your initial claim was that he had no money apart from company stock, and lives entirely on debt. This is factually incorrect, as I pointed out: his family money predates all of his companies.
Attached to your factually-incorrect claim was a casual denigration of a group of people with whose beliefs you disagree. This was both misguided and unnecessary.
My factual statement in response was simply:
> He started out with a lot of money from his family's South African mining operations.
Based solely on that true statement of fact, you derided me, responding to claims I never made and labeling me and my "thinking" in inaccurate and insulting ways.
Please, stop.
Your statement was extremely loaded, suggesting Elon's family somehow is part of his success. While our past is certainly part of us always, it is very loaded and complex. As is well known Elon's father was very abusive, committed crimes, and has just married his stepdaughter. Ask any psychologist and I think that is more a hindrance than an advantage in terms of family background.
I stand by the fact that anything implying Elon is successful because of his family money is a hugely far-left opinion, if not communist, and has its roots in your resentment for Elon's success.
This is not okay. Please, pursue empathy.
TIL reality is communist
Farmers working under communist rule in China who started private farming caused agricultural productivity to skyrocket and the number of starving people to drop [1]. Say what you will about human greed, but aligning a behavior you want with a natural economic incentive is a powerful tool.
On the flipside, some industries like healthcare don't belong in such a ruthless system, because "voting with your wallet" is sometimes equivalent to "voting with your life". Other industries like scientific research have too long a lag time for the the companies to stay afloat, or for the decision makers to benefit from the decision. These industries are the ones that frequently need help from government, nonprofit, donors, etc.
[1]: https://reaction.life/chinese-capitalist-growth-happened-spi...
Take for example, Elon musk. Even though he hasn't given monet away to charities like Chuck, his for-profit enterprises like electric cars, solar farms, spacex and possibly neuralink might just have been things that end up equally great for humanity.
So if you have billions I guess timtowtdi.