Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Rich

A TV commercial once showed a super-model type touting a beauty product with the tag line, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Her breathy, foreign-accented delivery made it all the more effective.

Elon Musk is not beautiful, but he does have the breathy, slightly foreign accent down pat. Yesterday, Elon said, “Watch out. After they come after the billionaires, they will come after you.”

By the way, yesterday Elon’s net worth increased to $290 billion after Tesla sold a bunch of cars to Hertz. That is an increase of $25 billion in a single day. Elon Musk is now worth more than Exxon.

Fox News, of course loved it. Biden, Pelosi and those socialist Dems are after YOUR money, not billionaires’ riches. Elon Musk said so.

Taxes are the price we pay for governmental services. I am very happy to pay taxes supporting Social Security and Medicare since I benefit from them. I am very happy to pay for the CDC and the FDA since vaccine-less COVID likely would have killed me. I am happy to pay for the FAA since it prevents planes from falling from the sky especially when I am aboard those planes. I am less happy about paying for the Federal Court System, water projects that make Tulsa, OK an “inland port”, and the SEC. I will never be sued in Federal Court. I will never ship through Tulsa. If the stock exchanges indulge in underhanded deals, it has zero effect on me.

But Elon Musk really needs the Federal courts, shipping ease, and a regulated stock market among many other things that my tax dollars support. He should pay more. A lot more.

“Don’t hate me because I’m rich,” says Elon. Pay up and I won’t.