Musk demonstrates why billionaires tax is essential

Thanks to Elon Musk, who is often credited as the world’s richest person, we now have a good clue to whether someone has too much money. That clue is when he turns tax policy into a Twitter game.

Musk on Saturday responded to a proposal to impose a tax on billionaires’ wealth by launching a poll on Twitter, asking followers whether he should sell 10% of his shares in the electric vehicle company Tesla. He pledged to “abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.”

The final vote went in favor of selling, 57.9% to 42.1%, with more than 3.5 million votes cast.

Musk’s approach earned brickbats from people who think seriously, not whimsically, about the social and economic implications of concentrated wealth.

One is Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who crafted the proposal that drew Musk’s ire. Wyden’s plan, which hasn’t survived the legislative giveand-take on Capitol Hill, would have taxed the unrealized gains in capital assets such as stock each year. Under current law, capital gains aren’t taxed until the asset is sold — providing wealthy people with convenient means to avoid the tax for years, decades and even forever.

“Whether or not the world’s richest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the result of a Twitter poll,” Wyden tweeted.

As of June 30, Musk was reported to own 244 million shares of Tesla, or about 23% of its stock. That includes 73.5 million shares Musk is due from exercising 2012 stock options that expire at the end of August 2022.

The common estimation of Musk’s wealth is largely dependent on the price of Tesla shares, which were trading at about $1,181 as these words were being written. That placed a value of about $288 billion on Musk’s stake.

Musk’s Twitterbased campaign against Wyden’s tax proposal reflects how he has used social media to protect the privilege of wealth. Last month, after David Beasley, director of the United Nations’ World Food Program, urged the world’s billionaires to “step up” to address world hunger, noting on CNN that $6 billion, or about 2% of Musk’s fortune, could “help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them,” Musk tweeted a snarky reply.

“If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” he wrote. Beasley offered to fly anywhere to meet with Musk to explain. There are no indications that Musk accepted the offer.

Musk’s exchange with Beasley pointed to an important question posed by the unprecedented concentration of wealth in America and the world today: Do we really want solutions to pressing social problems left to the whims of a tiny handful of ultrawealthy individuals like Musk? To ask the question is to answer it.

Musk was waging war with Wyden’s tax proposal before staging his Twitter poll: “Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you,” he tweeted Oct. 25. There’s no evidence that any such idea was under consideration — especially given the reluctance of Democrats alike to raise taxes on the middle class, however it’s defined.

No, the billionaires tax was aimed exactly where the label indicated, at America’s ever-fattened billionaire class. No one is more adept at evading taxes than the 1%, or at achieving changes in the tax code that benefit them legally.

Musk’s pretense that taxing his majestic wealth will lead to higher taxes on ordinary Americans is just so much bluster. He’s protecting his own wealth, don’t think otherwise. His willingness to manipulate public sentiment to keep his own pockets filled is the best proof that a billionaires tax is desperately needed.