-by Noah
I was struck the other day by Elon Musk’s declaration that Build Back Better shouldn’t pass because it would increase the budget deficit. Interesting fact: Tesla was founded in 2003 and had its first profitable year in 2020. That is, it spent 17 years spending more money than it was taking in, because it was investing in the future. If, as many executives like to say, the government should be run like a business, why shouldn’t it be willing to do the same thing?
- Paul Krugman
I guess Time Magazine just wanted to brown-nose the money. Obviously, the hypocrisy exemplified in the above statement never bothered them at all. Maybe Time just wants or arrogantly expects us all to give them credit for not naming Moscow Mitch, The Proud Boys, Trump, or Mark Meadows as their Person Of The Year. I'm sure they considered Jair Bolsonaro, Joel Osteen, Marjorie Traitor Greene, and Joe Manchin, too. In the end, they went with Elon Musk, a marginally better choice only in the light of the technology contributions of his companies. So, kudos to you completely tonedeaf, insensitive and out of touch douchebags in suits at Time Magazine! You went with Measles instead of COVID. Pat yourselves on the back.
Really? Elon Musk? A multi multi-multi-multi-billionaire, a freeloading federal subsidy sponge who pays only micro amounts of federal taxes if any at all? In 2018, Musk paid no federal taxes! None! Zero! As Senator Elizabeth Warren says he's the poster child for how our rigged tax system lets billionaires pay virtually no taxes at all. For that, the childish Musk calls Senator Warren Senator Karen but the thing is, with the money he has, he could pay his fair share of taxes on April 15th and his fortune would grow back to its April 14th level in 4 months. He'd effectively never even miss it.
Time could have picked the scientists who are working on vaccines to fight COVID and its variants. They could have picked all of the nurses and doctors that have worked tirelessly in our hospitals trying to save lives while risking their own. How about all of the teachers who have striven to teach their students with Zoom classes while we make them fight like dogs for dollars at hockey games.
How about the people who are leading the fight for voting rights while getting death threats from Republicans every damn day? Hey, I know! How about the police who put their lives on the line at the Capitol Building on 1/6 and thwarted the Republican Party's attempted Trump coup?
No. Time Magazine went with Elon Musk, a man who's the epitome of entitlement. From 2014 to 2018, Musk got $13.9 Billion richer but only paid 3.27% of that new wealth in taxes? Is that the rate you paid? During 2020, the first year of the pandemic, Musk got about $143 Billion richer while millions of our tax paying citizens found it increasingly more difficult to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. This is the definition of income inequality that has been deliberately even more wildly exacerbated by the Trump-Ryan Tax Scam of 2017.
Anyone with the kind of money that Musk makes that doesn't pay it forward is not worthy of consideration. Person Of The Year my ass. Does Time Magazine have a Christmas tree?
Meanwhile Jeff Bezos is probably saying, "What about me? I have a Penis Mobile Space Rocket!"
