every corporation isn't owned by a billionaire. Billionaires are pretty rare.
Billionaires exist because they often simply re-invest and re-invest, with compounding interest.
To some extent, I agree with you. However, corporations are organisms that evolve and the purpose of each one is different. I am a big fan of Tesla's mission. However, it would have not been successful without the infusion of Elon's personal wealth that he made from starting and selling PayPal. And without competition with Tesla (competition also being positive in capitalism), chances are less likely that other car companies would now be releasing so many electric vehicles. Remember, that they had the capability of putting EVs out decades ago but they purposefully sabotaged them by making them ugly so that people would choose their gas-guzzling models instead. So the greed of these existing corporations created a shield that could only be overcome by a new player with deep pockets.
Elon Musk isn't really greedy. It's more like he's cautious and wants to make sure he has enough money to see all of the projects he's passionate about through. For instance, he announced $100 million dollars as a prize for teams that are working on scalable mechanisms to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Again... competition. Now, this kind of thing is what governments should be doing in order to solve the world's problems. Between Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City, and The Boring Company, you can see why Tony Stark was based on Elon Musk and how some of these projects could be absolutely critical to mankind.
SpaceX, for example, is also launching global satellites to provide affordable internet service to Africa as well as the rest of the world. But if you look at the locations of AWS servers... unless there has been a dramatic change, you'll see that these locations show discrimination against Africa. Africa has very modern cities just like cities in the US. So why are companies overlooking them?
And with Solar energy... not only is it clean energy, but as the price keeps coming down it means that even poor people will be able to cut their energy costs significantly, helping them to have better lives. Elon has also talked about UBI (universal basic income) because technology is going to continue to impact the workforce. With UBI, poverty could be irradicated and crime would drop dramatically because every human's basic need would be met.
But these things cannot happen without corporations.
A mom-and-pop store could never operate on a level where it is able to generate so much profit that it could reinvest that profit in ways that would create such massive and innovative changes or direct donations to charity.
But charitable donations aren't super simple if you're talking about billions. Even though Musk has given over $280 million to charity over his lifetime, it pales in comparison to the $6 Billion that Musk said he would donate to the World Food Programme if they could describe exactly how $6B will solve world hunger. This shows that a lot of wealthy people have reservations about giving to charities other people manage because wealthy people often use charities as a scam. They collect donations but scrape a lot of money off the top in "operating expenses".
According to one report, a new SEC filing shows that Elon Musk transferred 5 million shares of Tesla to "charity". That, at the time, was worth about $5.7 billion. That is very close to the amount of the challenge in that tweet. So it's like... the money is there to solve the problem if they can handle the money and actually do it. Again... governments aren't doing this and even if we took up a collection, we wouldn't come close to doing it.
So does that mean all billionaires are good? No. But it does mean that billionaires have enough "disposable income" to change the world in ways the rest of us can't. And a lot of them donate huge amounts of money as they get older because it's not like they can take it with them. Why do they wait so long? Well because of 2 things. It's their money. And it's not their singular responsibility to solve all the world's problems.
What percentage of my income goes to charity? What percentage of yours? I'm not at the point yet where I can freely give money because I'm in debt like most people. Until then, a portion of my money automatically goes to the poor in the form of taxes.
Now what's the solution? Steal from the rich and give to the poor? No. UBI? Maybe. But also, equal access to education... social welfare programs like health insurance... if people don't have to work in order to have money are we absolutely sure that most people wouldn't choose a life of leisure while only a handful of people chose to work? And those who choose to work hate the idea of their tax dollars going to support people who choose not to work; who take advantage of the system. Because, at least in the US, the system does give out incredible amounts of money to the poor. It simply isn't enough and many of the people who receive government welfare do abuse it and become dependent on it. So the government tried to make it so they can only use that money to buy food and necessary grocery items. But guess what? People sell those cards to other people who need to buy groceries but who also have jobs. They get the groceries at a discount because they are buying the free money from the government. And the person who actually got the money from the government converts this into cash.
So there has to be a fair and equitable system that helps the poor to get to a position where they can take care of themselves without making them dependent and without letting them starve if they fail. It's one thing for the system to be stingy. But it's another thing for people to take advantage of it because ultimately, it's NOT the government's money. That money belongs to the working class who pay taxes.
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