Why is Robert Reich wrong about Elon?

Elon Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa.

Bill Gates’ mom helped Microsoft get a deal with IBM.

Jeff Bezos’ garage-based start was funded by a quarter-million dollar investment from his parents.

“Self-made billionaires” are a myth. pic.twitter.com/qSpM9Zu24d

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) September 20, 2022

In this above video, Robert Reich claims

"It suggest that anybody can claw their way up to the top if they are willing to work hard enough."

If you count starting with $2000 CAD, Elon did claw his way up to the top.

"Elon Musk came from a wealthy family that owned an emerald mine in apartheid South Africa"

The correct timeline here is that Maye Musk left Errol Musk in 1979 because Errol was abusive.

Although his methods of instruction very strongly favored stick over carrot, I did learn a tremendous amount of engineering from him & appreciation of art (he is an extremely talented artist)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2022

Then Errol Musk became a half owner of an Emerald Mine in the 1980s.

Stating "came from a wealthy family" is an outright lie

It is very deceitful to use this story to claim Elon came from wealth. As mentioned before Elon came to Canada at age 17 with $2000.

"Taxpayer Subsidies Helped Tesla Motors, So Why Does Elon Musk Slam Them?"

While it is true companies can benefit from government subsidies, Elon slams all subsidies equally. Elon's stance is that oil subsidies should be cancelled, in fact all subsidies should be cancelled to create a level playing field. This can be verified in the following Tweet thread where Elon replies with "yes"

Elon Musk in reference to the Build Back Better bill: I would cancel it. Don't pass it; Get rid of all subsidies, especially for oil and gas.

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 7, 2021

Robert Reich pushes the anti-billionaire narrative that they don't pay for their fair share of taxes because some years they don't pay anything. While some billionaires exploit loopholes, Elon Musk doesn't pay taxes in years where he overpaid the year before and doesn't owe additional amounts.

The only reason I didn’t pay federal tax in 2018 is because I *overpaid* in 2017! Since they stole my tax records, they actually know that.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 21, 2022

Since then, Elon recognized the public support of billionaires paying taxes. Elon takes no salary compensation, so the only way for Elon to do this is recognize capital gains on shares sold of his companies. Late 2021, Elon did something he said he would never do - sell his Tesla stock. But before he did, he took a poll, to ensure he had majority of support behind this decision.

Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.

Do you support this?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021

This 2021 ~$22B sell off created a record $11B+ tax bill for Elon with a >50% tax rate. To put that in perspective, it was over $1.5M/day for every day Elon was a US Citizen.

Since then, in 2022, Elon has sold $6.9B more stock to ensure he is in a safe position if he is forced to buy Twitter. This will further create a $3B+ tax bill for 2022.

Robert Reich is attempting to rally public support by creating an enemy out of Elon Musk. The *Billionaire Bad* narrative is effective because of the inequality established in America.

If Robert Reich succeeds the best he can in this mission, Elon would have no companies left. The US Government would slowly extract Elon's companies away from him bit by bit.

But let's fast track this process. Let's say, the goverment gets everything Elon owns tomorrow. Right now, this is worth somewhere between $200B - $300B. Let's give the government the $300B and Elon $0.

Then what? What is the end game? Now we have just transferred all the money from the person who is the most effective in the world at spending capital to the US Government who with a $6.8T budget in 2021 alone failed to provide any meaningful change. If that budget was increated to $7.1T would that fix a single thing? Or would it just allow the government to give more money to ... I dunno ... a defence contractor like Osh Kosh with the largest electric vehicle contract.

Or contracts for Private For-profit Prisons.

Or subsidize oil $20B/year which in turn ended up costing the planet $5.9 TRILLION in 2020.

Does it make sense to take money from a company who is building multiple factories, creating tens of thousands of jobs and succeeding more than any other company in the pursuit of expediting the worlds transition to sustainable energy?

Think Global Warming is a hoax? It doesn't matter because people die every year from vehicle air pollution. Shirley, you agree vehicle air pollution exists. That's right. I called you Shirley.

Anybody that thinks Robert Reich has their best interest at heart is a fool. In no way will it make sense with any current or past government to take money from somebody like Elon and expect the government to achieve a better outcome. Despite that Elon continues paid his fair share. And for Robert Reich to include Elon into the *Billionaire Bad* narrative is simply to leech off the popularity of Elon so as to gain attention at the cost of spreading lies which will ultimately destroy Robert's reputation.

You can lie forever Robert, but awareness is spreading.

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