CMV: Elon Musk is a villain and the epitome of why we need aggressive taxation of the rich

Elon Musk is chilling at the top of the Forbes 500 list. He's worth nearly $200 billion. His network is estimated to be nearly $300 billion at times. He's the richest man alive. <br><br>I don't want to make this thread about "Why doesn't he give back?" or "Let's see you give all your money away." I want to make this thread about why, from my perspective, people with that kind of money are bad for the rest of us and how "pursuing their dreams" and "being their own boss" is not a net positive. <br><br>Let's first examine the act of amassing $400 billion dollars. How does a man make so much money? He hires people. He pays them an hourly wage. The workers create value. But when the investors get paid, Elon gets the biggest checks of all. He does so little and reaps the biggest rewards. This is where our first problem arises: he is an executioner of value, not a creator. <br><br>Anything Elon Musk creates is because he hires others to do it. The cars? Others built them. The rockets? Others built them. I'm sure he's in the background meeting with people, boards, engineers, and likely has a tremendous influence on the creation of such things, but he's not out on the line actually creating anything. And then he gets paid the most for it. Because he invested money. And when he rakes it in, what does he do with it? He invests more. Where does he invest? His same damn companies. He invests billions of dollars back into his companies. So he can make more money off the labor of others. So investors like himself can continue to reap the vast rewards of the labor of others. The man is a parasitic leech, only existing to siphon your taxes, your labor, and your money into his own bank account. When he gets kicked for $8.1 billion dollars in taxes, he shrugs it off like it's nothing. Because it is. It's what, 2% of his network? <br><br>The government would take in an additional $2 trillion a year if the hyper rich paid their fair share. 1/3rd of all money made ends up in the hands of the top 1%. The bottom 50% work themselves to death just to struggle to make ends meet and the hyper rich don't even make enough to cover their costs of living. Why does Elon Musk deserve protection from crippling taxation? Why does anyone think this man's pursuit of wealth is good for anybody but himself? Why does anyone think he's owed anything at all?<br><br>We should tax Elon Musk until he doesn't want to be Elon Musk anymore. And then we should take that money and invest it into infrastructure, schools, and hospitals. <br><br>Elon Musk is a villain and a waste of space. Unless you can change my view. <br><br>Addendum:<br><br>Several folks have brought up he created all these jobs. But would you say that the CEO of Exxon/Mobil is a hero for creating jobs when that's his literal job description to act in the interest of the shareholders? He's not doing them a solid, he's literally the CEO of a job creating enterprise. I have no problem with him being the CEO of a company, but I take issue with his worth skyrocketing while his workers struggle. I'd have no issue with him being paid a normal CEOs wage. The fact that he makes $90k/hour is disgusting.