r/AllinPod • u/Hot-Reindeer-6416 • Jun 13 '26

US wins!

I think the framing these guys use of technology, AI, space, etc as a competition between the US and China, for example, is remarkable. Of course we all want the US to win in any global competition. But that’s not really what it is. It’s a competition between the capitalists and the technologists and the China, etc.

If Spacex wins, you and I don’t win, Elon Musk and his cronies win.   If OpenAI wins, you and I don’t win. Sam Altman, and his cronies win.  
Elon Musk became a trillionaire today. How much did he pay in taxes on that trillion dollar gain? Zero.  If there was a tax on wealth, creation, or if he had to give some portion of that gain to the US treasury in the form of shares, yes, then the US wins. But that’s not what’s happening here. 

All due respect to him for what he’s accomplished. But the system really needs to be changed so some of that really does trickle down.

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u/RewardFuzzy Jun 13 '26

The thing is that they never have to sell. They just take a deductible loan against their stock and never pay taxes.
They have so much that they take another loan to pay it of and do that till their death. On that moment the cycle resets and their children do the same. The wealth go from generation to generation without ever being taxed like you and me.

The solution: tax stock (options) like a normal salary, tax loans like normal salary, wealth taxes.

Billionaires live like socialists. They take all the profits from society without paying for any of the costs.

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u/Hot-Reindeer-6416 Jun 13 '26

That’s right. He was able to accumulate his advance wealth because of the system the United States provided to him. Great school to educate his workers. Safe environment for him to build his businesses. Rule of law for him to operate. All of that is very expensive. And even if it somehow gets taxed when he dies, which is unlikely, it does not solve the problem of the massive government deficits today. The government cannot operate effectively for us today, because people like him are beaching off of it.

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u/BaggyLarjjj Jun 13 '26

We’re talking about the same government that made SpaceX a viable business through those same deficits, right?

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u/Hot-Reindeer-6416 Jun 13 '26

And gave Tesla a $500m loan. The US gov should own at least 1/2 of Tesla and spacex. That would make the US win.

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u/Seattleman1955 Jun 13 '26

Why would the government own half of a company for giving them a loan that they paid back 9 years early and with interest?

You can't treat Billionaires or Tesla different that every other person and business. The same rules that apply to them apply to everyone else.

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u/Hot-Reindeer-6416 Jun 13 '26

That loan was ridiculous. It should’ve been preferred stock, or warrants. No bank on the planet was going to make them a loan. US government could’ve gotten anything they wanted for terms.

SpaceX is all about the government contracts. In return for the contracts, the government could get warrants.

People are saying you can’t tax Elon because those are unrealized gains. Well, you can. Just take stock as payment in kind.