General > General Technical Chat
Electronics whiz Elon Musk is now the world's richest person
wraper:
--- Quote from: Halcyon on January 09, 2021, 05:58:32 am ---Also, Tesla sells their cars at a loss. They make their money from "green" certificates in the US.
--- End quote ---
20-30% profit margin is selling at loss? Green certificate money goes into building new factories.
nctnico:
--- Quote from: wraper on January 09, 2021, 01:11:23 pm ---
--- Quote from: Halcyon on January 09, 2021, 05:58:32 am ---Also, Tesla sells their cars at a loss. They make their money from "green" certificates in the US.
--- End quote ---
20-30% profit margin is selling at loss? Green certificate money goes into building new factories.
--- End quote ---
But without new factories there are no cars to sell. The big question is whether Tesla can still expand without the revenues of the emission certificates.
One of my former co-workers was offered early retirement at 80% of his income. Much to my surprise he declined. It got clear to me once he explained to me that that last 20% of your income is the part you use to do fun stuff. Sure you can survive on 80% but no more fun stuff like holidays or buying something for your hobby.
For companies it works the same way; enough money has to come in in order to maintain and possibly expand the product line. Otherwise it is only surviving and slowly moving towards being obsolete.
wraper:
--- Quote from: VK3DRB on January 09, 2021, 12:16:26 pm ---I personally don't think Musk is worth even 1% of his so-called net worth. However, the meritocracy system allows some smart people to amass such an obscene amount of wealth and generally pay minimal tax. Worth should be somehow based upon how you help others and mankind. You'd be blind Freddy to think Alice Walton, "worth" $54 BILLION, is not at least just a little bit greedy when Walmart only pays their cashiers a lousy $10.78 per hour. Something is wrong when lowest paid workers can barely afford a decent meal for their kids or transport to get to work, whilst the super-rich are hell-bent on making more money than they know what to do with. Inequality is getting a lot worse in the US and other places (very evident during COVID-19) and I suspect this kind of greed might be a major cause of the civil unrest in the US.
It will not be long before the world has its first trillionaire and my bet is he will make it from the tech sector. However, Gates is working very hard at increasing his "net worth" with most of his investments in the non-tech sectors, including a large investment in Walmart. There might need to be a global movement (or revolution) to limit the amount of wealth a person can accumulate, or at least share wealth more equitably. Easier said than done. History has proven society works better when there is incentive. I would like to see a society where people are rewarded in proportion to their real worth.
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Net worth is not like having that money in cash, it's a virtual "money". Taxing net worth like lunatic Bernie Sanders suggested is ridiculous. It's like if government told you to sell part of your home to pay the tax as housing market price rises. Which happens to some extent as property tax, and then old couples are forced to sell their home in expensive area because they can no longer afford paying tax :palm:. Limiting amount of wealth would mean that private companies cannot have strong leadership, and would become the same ineffective jelly as governments. Even communists in China understand that this does not work.
BravoV:
--- Quote from: wraper on January 09, 2021, 01:37:59 pm ---Even communists in China understand that this does not work.
--- End quote ---
I guess the OP is an extremist, more extreme than China that he hates so much. :-DD
wraper:
--- Quote from: nctnico on January 09, 2021, 01:21:56 pm ---
--- Quote from: wraper on January 09, 2021, 01:11:23 pm ---
--- Quote from: Halcyon on January 09, 2021, 05:58:32 am ---Also, Tesla sells their cars at a loss. They make their money from "green" certificates in the US.
--- End quote ---
20-30% profit margin is selling at loss? Green certificate money goes into building new factories.
--- End quote ---
But without new factories there are no cars to sell. The big question is whether Tesla can still expand without the revenues of the emission certificates.
One of my former co-workers was offered early retirement at 80% of his income. Much to my surprise he declined. It got clear to me once he explained to me that that last 20% of your income is the part you use to do fun stuff. Sure you can survive on 80% but no more fun stuff like holidays or buying something for your hobby.
For companies it works the same way; enough money has to come in in order to maintain and possibly expand the product line. Otherwise it is only surviving and slowly moving towards being obsolete.
--- End quote ---
Being in expansion stage does not mean you work at loss. It means that instead of stopping growth and paying dividends you choose to invest into expansion, which Tesla does very rapidly.
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