How about that Elon Musk?

 

How about that Elon Musk?

America is once again number one. We have as a citizen the first person on Earth with a net worth of over one trillion dollars. I guess we can claim him even though he is an immigrant by way of Canada. Born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1971, he left while the getting was good before Apartheid came to a close in his native land. With Apartheid white citizens were favored and advantaged over non-whites. He chose America where the extreme wealthy (the Epstein class) are favored and advantaged over the wealthy and below (obviously wealthy non-whites would also be included in this lower class).

Being a person of much lower wealth, at about one hundred thousand (depending on the value given to my home) I have a hard time visualizing what it would be like to have a net worth of over a trillion dollars, but I am going to attempt it in this blog.

I will start with one hundred dollars, With this amount of money my wife and I can go out and have a nice steak dinner. It won't buy desert and drinks but we are well satisfied. It also could buy me a nice warm coat that would last for years.

For a thousand dollars, ten times the hundred, I can buy a dining room table and chairs. For several thousand dollars I can buy a used ski boat. The problem with that is the cost of gasoline. For a hundred thousand I could buy the car or truck of my dreams (same problem with the cost of gas).

Let's jump to a million dollars (a thousand thousands). With one of these I could buy a beautiful home overlooking the sea in Oregon. In California you couldn't buy a dumpster overlooking the sea. For several million I can buy a pristine mansion with fifty acres, overlooking the sea in Northern Ireland.

Now the challenge is a billion dollars. A thousand million. I can't comprehend this quantity of wealth. What could one desire for this amount? With this amount I have my yacht with a ski boat for a life boat, docked by my mansion by the sea, located on fifty acres of grass land (for my brother-in-law to mow) and multi-millions still in the bank.

So, what the hell is a trillion dollars? It is a thousand billion! To me, that approaches infinity, Elon doesn't have just a trillion. He has one and a tenth trillion (Forbes estimate in June of 2026). Why mention the one tenth of a trillion? Because it is one hundred billion. From the above you can see that one tenth of a trillion is real money.

Musk has a ten year contract with Tesla that “earns” him a hundred billion annually (another trillion). I'm sure that he will invest the money wisely. So ten years from now he could be the first multi-trillion dollar man. Won't that be nice?

The US Supreme Court (with its legal secret unlimited political pack donations, Citizens United) had a major roll in enabling Elon Musk to help put a man found guilty of sexual assault and an ego maniac into the office of President of The United States. It has been revealed that Musk donated two hundred and fifty million dollars to Trump's recent campaign for President. Political wizards estimate that it requires a thousand dollars in campaign funds to change a single vote in a presidential election. So a $250,000,000 donation could result in two hundred and fifty thousand votes turned. Thanks to the US Supreme Court, one man, Elon Musk, accounted for more than 10% of Trump's win of 2,284,967. After this donation is Musk left in a weakened financial position? No, he only used 4.4% of his wealth and has more than regained his donation with awards of no-bid government contracts.

What would help save this nation from billionaire elites? Some tax legislation might help. In the 1940s the tax rate on every dollar earned over $250,000 was over 90%. With inflation it should be moved to each dollar over $500,000 (anyone could live comfortably on that figure). The maximum rate presently is 34%. Changing it back to 90% could fund USAID (the richest nation in the world helping the poorest nations), public education, universal healthcare and public transportation. We could make America of the people, by the people and for the people. With this suggested income tax in place Musk would have never moved down from Canada and we wouldn't have had a monkey with a chainsaw on the floor of the Republican Convention.

Can a wealthy white migrant still find power in today's America? Yes he can. The dream is still alive.

Cheers, Old Buz           6/15/26

“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.”
- George Bernard Shaw

"When Money Talks, Democracy Walks."

The United States of America has officially passed fail-safe in terms of turning its governance over to financial interests.  When our Supreme Court determined in the Citizens United Decision that a corporation could remain anonymous while donating unlimited dollars to a political action committee, five of the nine justices sold our democracy to the highest bidder.   The PACs (political action committees) own both the Democratic and Republican parties and the parties control the representatives.   This control is exercised on the representative through disbursement of campaign funds and committee assignment and the position on the assigned committee.  As you know, the committees rule the game.  If you watch CSPAN, you know that the representatives don’t listen to floor debate.  They only show up when a vote is called.  The work, debate on, and form of a bill, is determined in committee and if you watch the floor votes, you will see that the representatives pretty much vote along party lines.  All of this is nothing new.  It simply became official with Citizens United.  All three branches of the government answer to large dollar interests.  Both parties do.

This subject was brought to my attention this morning when I read the headline of my newspaper.  “Water does flow on Mars.”  That’s nice, I thought.  I wonder how many tax dollars were spent in order to obtain that bit of information.  Had to buy space ships, an orbiter, telescopes and to pay all of those brilliant minds to work on the project.  I have to admit that I would vote for using those funds for developing desalinization plants to flow water here in the United States.  I never did get to vote on that, but I can guarantee you that lobbyists had some input.  We are talking about major tax dollar expenditures.  Science is great.  I like it better than religion, but there is a water shortage and we have known about it for some time.  Spend the money for the greatest common good, not for the enrichment of the vendors.

Another example of large money being more appealing than the Country’s needs is Donald Trump’s candidacy.  He is right now the leading Republican candidate for President of The United States.  It can’t be attributed to his political abilities.  He has offended every group of American voters, other than white males.  It isn’t his family values.  He is on his third wife.  It isn’t his physical appearance.  He has a silly looking hairstyle.  He pouts and gets a dumb look on his face when proven wrong.  It isn’t his business ethics.  He claims that he has never gone personally bankrupt, but anyone who has owned a closely held corporation knows that the corporation is you and that the only reason the business is owned as a corporation is to shield personal liability and for tax advantages.  So when closely held corporations of yours have gone bankrupt four times … you have gone bankrupt four times and when you have done that profitably, you are a thief.  I say that because the simple way to a profitable bankruptcy is to borrow, then move assets elsewhere, losing only a shell of a corporation, but canceling its debts.   Trump can do this more often than once every seven years, because each of his corporations is treated as a separate entity.  When Donald said that he did this to bankers, everyone at the first Republican debate laughed and applauded.  That is a gullible crowd.  A bankruptcy doesn’t cost a banker a dime, but it does cost his depositors millions.  In some cases billions.  Who are these “depositors”?  Try retirement funds, corporate deposits, and personal deposits … that is, all of you.   The purpose of bankruptcy law is a shield for the poor and financial failures, not a sword for the wealthy.  Trump says that he follows the law.  No … he abuses the law.   Trump says that he has bought favors from politicians.  Bribed them that is, but legally.   Do you think that his morals will change in office?  Why does this man lead the Republican polls?  He won’t win the general election and perhaps not the Republican primary, but he is a dangerous sign of the direction of our moral values as a nation.

“When Money Talks, Democracy Walks.”  What are we going to do about that?

Comments are welcome.  Cheers, Old Buz.