[Hoot Gibson]

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-paid-0-in-federal-income-tax-in-2018-report-1847051810

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/08/bezos-musk-buffett-bloomberg-icahn-and-soros-pay-little-in-taxes.html

https://slate.com/technology/2021/09/sta...-fund.html

So, Musk is following our tax law and has paid well over a billion dollars in income taxes ($1.4 million on $6.5 billion of income from 2006 through 2018 alone) but it is not enough. To make Musk into a bigger deadbeat, liberals have concocted a "true tax rate," which combines Musk's taxable income with the increase in the value of his stock holdings for the same time period. The "true tax rate" is nonsense intended to demonize wealthy Americans who are just following the law. Musk pays taxes on income as he sells his stock, which means that in some years, he has very little reportable income, and in other years he pays many millions of dollars in taxes.

As for the federal money paid to Musk's Starlink, anybody who has a beef with the federal government determining that Starlink can provide cost-effective internet to rural users should take up the issue with their elected officials. It is very expensive to provide terrestrial infrastructure to provide internet service in sparsely populated areas of the country. The same is true for mobile phone service. The Slate article that you posted decries the fact that poor people will not be able to afford the cost of a satellite dish and the monthly subscription for the service. My suggestion is for those poor people to learn to program or to perform another marketable service to pay for good internet service. Starlink will offer many people the opportunity to telework from home - from an area with a lower cost of living, cleaner air, and better views than their city counterparts. When you factor in the potential savings for telecommuters and the environmental benefits, Starlink's cost is a tremendous bargain.

Musk is a visionary who has risked his fortune several times on unproven technologies that nobody else had tried to develop on a commercial scale. Tesla is now the world's most valuable automobile manufacturer. Other Musk companies are on the cutting edge of technologies in batteries, tunneling, reusable rockets, and satellite-linked internet. The jobs that these companies created did not exist before Musk came along because he pioneered commercial development of each of the technologies.

Dislike Musk all you want. He sounds like a horrible guy to have as an immediate boss, but Musk is still an American hero. He has not grown wealthy through government subsidies or through hostile takeovers of competing companies. He has not grown wealthy by becoming a crooked elected official exploiting insider information and extorting payments from wealth creators. Musk has created innovative products and technologies and has overcome an extreme amount of bureaucratic red tape in the process.

The argument is the law.  The tax code is wrong and when common Conservatives hold up the GOP platform they vote against what is best for America.  

I agree Musk is a visionary.  Not an American Hero just a billionaire businessman like Gates, Bezos, Bloomberg, Buffet (I'm sure you wouldn't call those guys American heroes, Hoot)   Musk is a man who has benefitted from our failure to hold the rich accountable.  That responsibility falls on the politicians we elect and it turns out both sides are guilty of putting crooked poltiicians in office.

You are dead wrong, Cardfan1. I don't value people based on their political beliefs. I disagree with Bezos on nearly all of his political positions, but I consider him as much a hero as Elon Musk. Bezos created his wealth in a market that he created through his own efforts. Musk and Bezos share a very optimistic vision of the future that involves developing commercial ventures throughout the Solar System and beyond, including human colonies to ensure that our species does not become extinct as the result of a global disaster.

As for Gates, Bloomberg, and Buffet, I have much more respect for them most politicians in either party. I don't consider them to be on the same level as Musk and Bezos because much of their wealth has come at the expense of eliminating competition and destroying jobs, but they have all been positives for the American economy.

You and your ilk look at wealthy men like Musk and Bezos as demons who have become wealthy by depriving others of their wealth, which is almost never how rich people accumulate their wealth. I recognize the monumental contributions to our economy and society that such men make. I am perfectly comfortable criticizing Bezos's political agenda while admiring and respecting his positive contributions to this world. You cannot seem to get past the fact that Musk is not a liberal and he has more money than you would see in a thousand lifetimes.

Man!! Hoot, you have turned over a new leaf.  Last week it was Woodward and now you're praising liberal billionaires.  Before you know it you will be a card carrying "Marxist, socialist, fascist antifa democrat" 

I find it hard to see these men as heroes as they hoard more wealth than 99% of Americans will see in their lives and pay less taxes than most.  I can't celebrate their accomplishments when they have so much freedom to succeed, yet they make concerted efforts to not give back like the rest of us.  

FWIW, what if we spent the same amount of time and money on technology to survive on this planet?  Also, I thought conservatives said climate change isn't real?  Dang, you have changed.

I have always praised the innovation, genius, hard work, and vision of Musk and Bezos. I have never never been a fan of Bob Woodward, so you once again have mischaracterized my posts in this forum and I don't understand what you think you gain by doing so. 

Billionaire visionaries like Bezos and Musk give back far more to society than you, I or 10,000 other average people combined will ever give back to society. They do not owe you a single cent of the wealth that they have accumulated, yet both of them invest their money in many projects for which they will not reap the rewards. The federal government creates no wealth and in the long term, saddling us and our descendants with debt that neither we nor future generations will ever be able to repay. Most of the money given to the federal government through taxes is used by politicians to consolidate power and to buy votes. The same goes for the $trillions that the federal government borrows to spend on useless programs for which the current generation would never agree to pay.

The fact that you assume that my comments about Bezos's and Musk's vision contributing to the long-term survival of the human species have anything to do with "climate change" shows a deep misunderstanding of science. The climate will change over time, as it has always changed over time, and eventually, the Earth will be engulfed by the Sun if our species survives long enough. However, our planet will also be struck with large meteorites that will change our climate and threaten us with extinction, as large meteor impacts have done in the past. There are other existential threats to humans but most people will get the idea with those examples. So, your climate change comment is yet another mischaracterization of my posts.

The bottom line is that you have no legitimate claim on the wealth that people like Musk and Bezos have accumulated. Americans are better off materially because of innovators like them, even if they were not paying $billions in taxes of every type. Our federal government is run by people who have little imagination or long-term interest in the future of mankind. Like you, they seek instant gratification by laying claim to other people's money and could not care less whether any humans are alive 1,000 or 1,000,000 years from now. 

Elon Musk's goal is to create a colony on Mars during his lifetime. Bezos wants to build the infrastructure for the commercial development of space. Bezos has often expressed his appreciation for companies like Fed-Ex and UPS, which made it possible for him to create Amazon without having to invest in delivery services upfront. He wants to pay the favor forward for future generations who will mine the asteroids and build our first colonies off-planet. 

Meanwhile, Democrats want to dismantle the U.S. Space Force because it was created on Trump's watch and both parties are borrowing money and dooming future generations of Americans to lives in poverty.