76 Comments
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Joseph Mangano's avatar

The point of the closing paragraph is a salient one. Elon treats promises like his children: willingly abandoned when he sees fit. Given the personal benefit Musk stands to reap from this stock gift plan, though, it stands to reason he might actually follow through with it. Then again, who knows?

Katy Bolger's avatar

I rarely bet on anything but I am willing to put up one share of BS Co. stock against him giving a dime to anyone. That one share, btw, is worth a million dollars.

laurie miller's avatar

It would mean every kid in the USA would know him.

Thats what he is after, thats all, Perpetuation. doesn't matter what that costs.

lauriemillerjade.com

John Publius's avatar

There is a story that the Roman emperor Caligula used to enjoy going to the top of a basilica and throwing coins into the streets, laughing as people stampeded each other to collect them. How is this any different? The insult to the dignity of Americans. We will just toss you some money, then will you shut up about wealth taxes and health insurance and rent? That we have come to live in a society where those who control wealth will decide if and under what conditions we survive is an abomination of everything America has stood for. This should be an outrage. The corporate media cheers.

Katy Bolger's avatar

Yop. I dabble in Shakespeare and the most astounding thing I keep seeing is that WE DO NOT CHANGE. If a Caligula can get to the top of a basilica and throw coins , he will. If the people walking by can push someone out of the way for a ducat, they will. Donald Trump, the showman/liar/despot was inevitably going to crawl out of the sewer and to the top of the basilica. Even in America, perhaps because we are America, someone, or a few somebody's, were going to use their freedom to make money, their money to influence people, their influence to make more money and destroy the ladder that got them to the top, leaving all of us down here scrambling in the dirt for a shiny coin.

laurie miller's avatar

Yeah, I was standing on the bottom rung, for a while,

Then that broke. Now I'm in the F*CKN mud, we all are.

Even the fools that think their safe, on the second rung

They all gonna break. .

lauriemillerjade.com

kdsherpa's avatar

Beautifully expressed.

Lynn Biddle's avatar

Through their donations won't Musk and Trump have access to the personal information of every child in the U.S.?

Bonnie's avatar

They already do.

laurie miller's avatar

HA HA HA. and a history link thats hard to break,

All for the cost of ONE share.

lauriemillerjade.om

Anne Molinas's avatar

Social welfare should not be at the whim of private entities. If these companies were really concerned about children, there are much better ways to support them. Invest in public health, education, autonomy and let the children grow up with advantages to succeed. Then they can decide where and how to invest their own money. It’s not redistribution of wealth if the billionaires keep getting richer and the children potentially will get almost nothing.

Katy Bolger's avatar

Yes. But as they whittle social programs, like SNAP, and then they throw coins, they will look like beneficence and we like grubby ingrates if we do not worship at their altar.

Anne Molinas's avatar

I don’t understand what that means. Give up one’s convictions.? We just have to work on changing the narrative. Not buy into false ones.

laurie miller's avatar

And you have to be on your knees.

lauriemillerjade.com

Frau Katze's avatar

That issue is a big dividing line between the left and right. I recall my father, an old time leftist, saying the same. They vote against any program to help the poor but push private charity.

Holly E Bartlett's avatar

But how? What are the logistics? Distribution? How are individual families supposed to handle single shares of stock? What database contains the identity and location of each of these children? (And citizenship information?). I could go on but I’d rather refill my coffee cup.

Suki Herr's avatar

If he’s knowingly lying, the details are immaterial.

Katy Bolger's avatar

I'll bet my shoe he is lying, and yet, I find the details fascinating. This handful of people, like Holly Bartlett, asking questions will be drowned out by the megaphones of Magats screaming USA! USA! at their leader. When a t-shirt wearing woman (shirt reads: What about the Epstein files) walks by asking those questions, those magats (men only please) will knock her down and kick her dead. Ask questions now before it's too late.

Suki Herr's avatar

A 50yr fan of “Dune”, hear me out, I always wondered about this universe outlawing this type of technology.

+Our human brain size is decreasing.

Maybe we should look for alternatives.

I see 3 laptops within my line of site+of course my phone. So I’m aware of my hypocrisy.

I hope I didn’t go too far afield, but the people who control tech development&expansion, mostly appear to have the morals of a snake.

Zelenskyy takes out some troll farms, Elon takes out StarLink/Shield. Yes I know the call came within the house, but my thinking 2 immoral reptiles cooked this up together.

I actually don’t think Elon is a rocket scientist, but he knows the people who pulled this off.

Katy Bolger's avatar

Bottom line: Leon Musk is a dangerous man but is held up like a golden idol to be worshiped because...he has money. Period. He is a rat, a snake and a pig.

Bonnie's avatar

DOGE has siphoned off the personal, formerly private info already, that's done. Soon the only way to get this "money" will be using Xmoney, and further permissions will be granted then.

laurie miller's avatar

It's been a slow job, grinding away at more money and power .

But that's all they can do !

, lauriemillerjade.com

laurie miller's avatar

Yeah I'm just going to go and make another coffee too,???

lauriemillerjade.com

Allison's avatar

It’s all a grift or a tax write off to flush the stock through the financial system and give it the appearance of higher value. Just like infusing SpaceX into stock and pension funds etc— they are forcing others to prop up the stock and share in the downturn.

L Bartnik's avatar

The self-serving manipulations of the rich are mind-blowing. Absolutely no understanding of or interest in humans other than as pawns.

Steve Baker's avatar

We are the serfs in their brave new world of digital feudalism. What fun it's going to be!

Barry Lockard's avatar

Musk is no more likely to keep his promise than Trump would. Children beware of this Pied Piper!

RobWhitH's avatar

The arrogance of these people is astounding. Trump thinks he can bribe me for only $90. Musk thinks he can buy my love as a grandfather for $146. No: His is my counteroffer. Elon, you have a net worth of $900 billion. In exchange for my support of you, you shall pay a one time net worth surcharge tax of $450 billion to the US government. There are roughly 330 million Americans, so that works out to $1,343 per person. Now we're talking real money, not some measly $146 stock certificate. Oh, one more thing, did I mention an annual 10% wealth tax thereafter? Shouldn't be a problem for you since Tesla's 10 year total return is 39%.

kdsherpa's avatar

EXACTLY WHAT'S NEEDED.

laurie miller's avatar

How F*CKING cruel you can be,

Do you know how much it costs him to run all of his planes ?

And those houses? Goodness me , you show such a lack of compassion.

lauriemillerjade.com

Dmitriy Ioselevich's avatar

Kind of giving the game away with the quote about "improving the public image of AI." That's all any of this is about. A hastily created handout to deflect attention from the very real damage AI is doing to people's lives. It's the parents and anybody else that is unemployed or underemployed that need the most support right now. Where is their "sorry, we ruined your career" cash?

Katy Bolger's avatar

Well, that stock is sitting in my Twump account so why should I care that my water is undrinkable, the earth unusable, the noise unbearable? Bring it on! I got my Musk stock, whooo-eee!

Peter's avatar

They will donate all of this stock and reap all the tax benefits protecting themselves from the crash when investors finally realize that Musk is full of shit and his promises are meaningless. Not to mention when SpaceX is nationalized and subsidies end for Tesla. They are both meme stocks with terrible underlying fundamentals kept high because investors think Musk, who has never invented nor innovated a damn thing, is a genius.

RobWhitH's avatar

SpaceX is down 13.4% since its IPO. According to Morningstar's analysis, the real market value is $62 per share. So by all means let's give our kids a share of massively overvalued stock.

Peter's avatar

I understand that analysts also figure that Tesla is overvalued by a factor of 5 based on the PE compared to other automakers.

Crystal Nipp's avatar

I would like to understand exactly what Elon's charitable foundation does do? I've heard it's not met minimum requirements for charitable donations and that it's really just a slush fund for a stingy billionaire. Seriously, look what he did to USAID. Does he seem at all like a charitable and kind person?

A Sarcastic Prophet's avatar

Since Steve Jobs convinced educators without any research based evidence 45 years ago that his companies technology was necessary in the classroom, we have let tech billionaires decide the educational, social and emotional education of our children to every one’s detriment. Along with disastrous federal policies like No Child Left Behind, bad learning systems like whole language and chromebooks for every child, we have not given our kids the skills they need. Tech billionaires don’t what educated civilians, they want subservient consumers. These stock gifts are tulip balls as history teaches us and the Dutch learned 400 years ago when the craze collapsed. Our present stock market ‘resets’ itself every 7 to 10 years and there are always losers. In stead of farting around with stock gifts and chromebooks, we could tax Elons capital wealth directly, take that money and invest in more books, pencils and paper in every elementary school. This is how are most important little citizens learn. We’ve lost one generation already. These tech billionaires must be stopped.

kdsherpa's avatar

TAXES are the ONLY solution.

Carol S Levin's avatar

I want to see the Democrats national and local or somebody to run ads that make GOP billionaire spending toxic.

Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and tech billionaires are running millions of dollars of negative advertising against Democrats because they are terrified that Democrats will win in this year's election and take away the billions of dollars the Trump administration has given them in tax cuts and no bid government contracts.

Here's a sample that could be adapted nationwide:

"Elon Musk and other billionaires are funding millions of dollars of negative ads against me because Rep/Sen xx in Congress is their ally.

Xx and the Republican Congress gave them billions of dollars in tax breaks while stripping millions of hard-working American families of access to food and healthcare in their "big beautiful bill."

Xx's billionaire allies want him/her to stay in office because they know she/he works for them.

I don't take their money. I will work for you.

I am xx and I approve this message.

Katy Bolger's avatar

Yes, the magat-adjacent businesses have profited off of Twump world at the expense of the rest of us. But it is not the loss of profits that keep the oligarchs and wanna-be oligarchs up at night, it's the investigations.

Michela A. C.'s avatar

If it goes through "trump accounts" then kids will NEVER see a dime.

Katy Bolger's avatar

One question: why not give the stocks now? Why wait? I believe we are looking down the field at a little girl holding a football. Run, Charlie Brown, kick it! She's not going to pull it...