[avalys]

Musk owns about 25% of Tesla, mostly after investing about $50M in Tesla's early funding rounds.

His wealth today comes largely because Tesla (under his leadership as CEO) has become a company that investors now believe is incredibly valuable, and they've driven up the stock price. At what point in this process did Musk "accumulate" this ownership of Tesla, and exactly what do you propose should have happened to stop him?

[camjohnson26]

It has become so valuable, more valuable than the rest of the auto industry combined at one point despite much lower revenue and sales numbers, because of loose monetary policy by the Federal Reserve creating artificially inflated asset prices. The Federal Reserve is directly responsible for Musk’s disproportionate wealth as Tesla stock zoomed past ridiculous levels.

Tesla has been successful in many of its lines of business and succeeded when many thought they couldn’t, that is undebatable. The failure of our system is that its stock price is completely out of line with the reality that reflects that success.

[nerdawson]

> loose monetary policy by the Federal Reserve creating artificially inflated asset prices

You can buy shares in other car manufacturers. Why would Tesla disproportionately benefit from inflated asset prices?

[camjohnson26]

Because car companies are boring, and in an era of cheap money the meme wins. “Sexy” automakers also got insane multiples, look at where Lucid and Rivian were trading. But the capital is diverted to whatever asset people think will keep going up, not the one that will create value in the form of profits. This is also why GameStop, AMC, DogeCoin, Shiba Inu, NFTs, Pokémon cards, etc. were trading so high, the meme is the only thing that matters.

Elon Musk knows this and is a master at harnessing this power, which is why he’s shamelessly pumped DogeCoin and Shiba. He continually pushes his company to be the most popular brands by promising impossible futuristic products that cannot exist, but build excitement. Countless examples of these, but a few are Full Self Driving, a flying Roadster, the Tesla semi, solving transportation issues with tunnels, the Tesla bot, $25k model 3, solar roof that costs less than a normal roof, robotaxi, etc etc etc. It’s all calculated.

[Anon1096]

You've basically written a lot of words here to say that Musk is making companies people want to invest in, and somehow that's the Fed's fault.

[camjohnson26]

You’re missing the key point then. People want to invest in NFTs too, and if you don’t see why that’s a problem you’re willfully blind.

[avalys]

Why is what other people do with their money a problem for you?

I think NFTs are stupid, but I don't think they're "a problem".

People spend lots of money on stuff I find stupid. I would never buy a Gucci handbag, they have about as much value as an NFT. But if someone else wants to, it doesn't hurt me, so, so what?

[peyton]

Yeah he’s a fundraising beast. It’s part of his job duties.

[Rury]

Because Tesla is in major indexes like the NASDAQ composite, and S&P 500, as well as many major/popular funds/ETFs. Additionally, many funds are weighted by market cap (so more expensive companies get even more disproportionate investment). And the majority of stock investment activity happens through these investment vehicles today.

Generally, anyone who puts money into a 401k, will likely have some of it going to Tesla and disproportionately over other auto companies - simply because how funds are typically weighted.

[plonk]

You say that like it’s natural that Tesla’s success makes billions flow to the one person at the top. Musk obviously isn’t making cars and managing the entire company by himself and doesn’t deserve to be richer than literal countries for making the right bet at some point in his life.

What should have happened is wider distribution of profits among Tesla employees, who are the ones actually doing the work. It’s fine if the CEO is considered an extremely valuable employee and gets a larger share, within limits. Pretty sure he could live a great life with a few million dollars, which would both limit his undeserved power and benefit everyone doing the work.

[BobbyJo]

Musk has sold billions in stock at this point, so this whole "it's stock that's increased in value independent of Musk" line of thinking is a bad misdirection.

[spullara]

And every time he has sold he has paid huge taxes on those sales.

[BobbyJo]

Yes, but how much? Most of the rich pay taxes, but how much "should" they pay? Should someone worth 100M pay higher income taxes than someone worth 1M if they make the same income in a given year? Should there be a "limit" on the amount of wealth one can transfer in a given year as which point taxes hit 100%?

Tax schemes and how they affect wealth, inequality, consumption, etc. is an interesting line of thought, and a necessary one, if you accept that the current one has allowed some individuals to get so rich that the rule of law breaks down in their presence.

[azinman2]

It’ll entirely be long term gains, so I wouldn’t say huge as a percentage. I would also venture all kinds of other things are being written off to reduce the tax burdens. Typically people like Musk don’t sell stock but use it as collateral to take out low interest loans, which avoids taxes.

[xdennis]

It should be payed every year, not just when sold. Joe Nobody pays property taxes every year, not just when he sells his meager house.

[mempko]

Property taxes. We tax physical property, why not legal fictions like stock ownership?

[xdennis]

> what do you propose should have happened

Every unit of time (year or month) you have to declare what stocks you own and you get taxed based on how much they're worth.