Elon Musk says he will donate $1 million to plant trees after testifying that he’s cash-poor
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
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Especially one promoted by YouTubers who seemingly worship Tesla/Musk. It's a good enough cause, but this is a really obvious move for good PR on Musk's part lol
Planting trees is great! As you know as you are the OP of this fantastic thread:
If anyone wants to get in on saving the planet, please take a look at the linked thread and consider making a contribution. 10 trees is 1 USD.
Don't think i'po ever understand the Musk hate but good on him for his. A shame I've seen people mock him for donating only a million though, I'd hate to be mocked for donating a few bucks whenever I give to a charity.
Hell yeah. We are still a long way from the objective and Christmas is coming fast.
Are the people saying Elon "is planeting trees wtf era" purposefully being obtuse here? Like the guy said he was illiquid under testimony then goes and donates 1 million dollars. That's seems sketchy at best.
Those things aren't mutually exclusive. Musk could have $50 million in liquid cash or cash equivalents and still be illiquid. One million is not a lot of money to a billionaire whose wealth is tied to assets they won't sell (ownership of their company).
That one million is likely dwarfed by his debt obligations. He for sure isn't poor by any stretch of the imagination, but I imagine he's telling the truth about his cash reserves to debt payments ratio.
So he lied in his court testimony then.
Edit: Like you can't have it both ways here dude. You even admit that he isn't poor by any stretch of the imagination but the problem here is that he testified that he was. Which he isn't.
Again just because Musk has the ability to donate a million dollars doesn't mean he's lying about being illiquid. A million is 1/1000 of a billion dollars. And I'd be willing to bet that Musk has a lot more debt than he does cash.
That's what I'm saying. He isn't poor. What is going on here???
Ok so if I'm testifying in court that I'm "poor" yet I have millions in the bank, regardless of my debt because that's an outside issue. That means I'm lying.
Being illiquid does not equal being poor. So that testimony is not necessarily a lie as you insist
You said that he was lying about being illiquid, which is likely not true. Musk never said he was poor.
he could also just donate a few shares of tesla stock, of which he owns a LOT, which frees him from the tax burden of selling and still gives away money (the charity can sell the stock for the cash or keep the stock and hope it keeps growing). this thread is weird.
There are a lot of valid criticisms to be made about Elon Musk, but this isn't one of them.
People unironically believe that he doesn't care about the environment? Seriously?
A person can be rich and weird, but also create a company that made an electric car with mass appeal. You have to care a whole lot to go against the Big 3 with, not just one, but an entire line of electric vehicles.
A person can be rich and weird, but also create a company that made an electric car with mass appeal. You have to care a whole lot to go against the Big 3 with, not just one, but an entire line of electric vehicles.
Glad to get a million more trees (we need them!), but I just don't understand how billionaire finances work. Could this get him in trouble on the lawsuit? While he claimed he was cash poor, he clearly has quick access to large sums of money for personal use.
Firstly, I think it is great that $1 million is going towards planting trees. If that plants a million trees and every billionaire did the same, then collectively the would offset about half the number of trees we cut down each year.
However, I personally dont think billionaires should exist and dont think they have proven themselves to be worthy stewards of the world's wealth. I also think that it is very likely that, despite his supposed green intentions, Elon and his various enterprises have done far more ecological damage then this bit of charity will offset - when he does have the ability to do far far more.
One million to a billionaire is not the same as $1 to someone with a few thousand to their name and we should collectively expect these people to be giving significantly more of their accumulated wealth in service of the environment and wellbeing of all that live here. A billionaire giving a million shouldnt be praiseworthy - it should be a bare minimum expectation.
However, I personally dont think billionaires should exist and dont think they have proven themselves to be worthy stewards of the world's wealth. I also think that it is very likely that, despite his supposed green intentions, Elon and his various enterprises have done far more ecological damage then this bit of charity will offset - when he does have the ability to do far far more.
One million to a billionaire is not the same as $1 to someone with a few thousand to their name and we should collectively expect these people to be giving significantly more of their accumulated wealth in service of the environment and wellbeing of all that live here. A billionaire giving a million shouldnt be praiseworthy - it should be a bare minimum expectation.
"Hefty" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your statement, it is $1000 discount when the average cost for a roof is 34k.
This isn't unique to "billionaire finances". Millionaires or literally anyone could be in the same position.
It just means he can't take his assets and turn them into cash easily and that they don't have a specific cash value. For example, I have a bunch of collectibles, and their worth a pretty penny. What is the exact amount? Not sure because it comes down to what people are willing to pay. Stocks, bonds, properties(some people argue back and forth if this is considered illiquid or not), art, cars(Jay Leno for example), etc all count towards this.
It just means he doesn't have a bunch of cash lying around.
Most wealthy people don't sit on mounds of cash, they have it spread out through various investments that total hundreds of thoughts or millions(or billions).
the ones that walmart's doing a lawsuit over for being fire risks?
Obvious PR opportunities are definitely worth criticizing, especially when Musk has had the power to actually help the environment in this regard for a long time. All he cares about is optics. The entire Thailand cave stunt was one example where his ego completely fell flat on his face, and if pocket change from Musk is enough to make people look up to him, then he should of done it long ago I guess. Musk, like Bezos, would rather invest money in leaving behind the Earth as opposed to physically making it a better place to live.
It is weird how people will defend this dude when he's basically robbing Peter to pay Paul. It's like if I had a power bill for $100 and instead of paying it I bought $100 in food and donated it to the homeless. Yeah i did a good thing with the money but the power company still isn't getting the money it is owed. Elon said he didn't have any cash on hand to pay this dude for defaming him, then used his cash on hand to pay for a bunch of trees. If he used a foundation to pay that money out, great but he needs to recognize that. It's just like when Trump's charity did charitable work. Maybe they did something good, but Trump took credit for it even though it wasn't his money.
Was he ordered to pay a certain amount? Then this metaphor would apply. If he wasn't, then it doesn't. He stated he is illiquid, not broke
Add this to the list of bizarre Elon hate threads. Guy is not perfect and said some stupid things. But I feel he is truly trying to do right for humanity. Planted a million trees, commercializing electric cars, making our species interplanetary. But, go ahead ERA do your thing. Just know it's cringey AF.
How do they buy things? Massive credit lines? Like, how can you reasonably claim to be financially illiquid in testimony regarding a lawsuit, but have enough liquidity to donate a million? Is it a loophole created through legal defenitions?
I feel like he's been selling too much sizzle (do failing solar panels sizzle?) and not enough stake, frankly.
We have no idea what he donated. You can donate shares. You can donate through your companies (which would be shoddy of him to take credit then)
Can we start crying for the poor billionaires yet or do we have to reach a critical mass first?
He's saying he's illiquid so that he won't have to pay this dude. The metaphor applies because he obviously has money to pay whatever order they give but he's claiming he doesn't.
That is not what he's saying. This is lawyers talking. Every word they say counts. And illiquid does not mean poor or that he's not claiming he can't pay. They love to mince words and they always will. And no, the metaphor does not apply because there is no bill to pay (yet)