On Friday of last week, I did a premium post which simply stated the following:
The stock has reached absolutely laughable levels. Tesla by itself was worth more than ALL other car companies on the entire planet combined, even though it accounts for something like 0.6% of cars sold.
Thus, I was quite interested to see this tweet, which has been the talk of the town all weekend:
It’s quite clear that the people have spoken, and for whatever reason, they are telling him, yeah, go ahead and sell. He has promised to obey (although he hasn’t made any pledge as to how swiftly he’d do it, I don’t think).
10% sounds small, but we’re talking about Elon here. That would be about $21 billion in stock dumped into the open market. Let’s just say that would match a lot of bids very quickly, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the stock gap down huge on Monday. It’ll be fascinating to see. Plus, the man is voluntarily (thanks to a goddamned Twitter poll) opening himself up to something like a $9 billion tax bill.
Elon also notes……..
Yeah, OK, I’m really sick of billionaires bragging how they don’t take a salary. I sincerely think people just don’t grasp about much a billion dollars is (let alone 333 billion dollars). This isn’t the difference between a $150,000 salary and a $100,000 salary. It’s astronomical.
The above tweet, in my opinion, is like a guy owning all the beaches in California, and there are individuals who are permitted to put a few grains of sand in their pocket (let’s just go with the idea that grains of sand are valuable). And Elon, who owns the entire beach up and down the coast, announces loudly that HE has chosen to not slip a few grains into HIS pockets. Well, B.F.D., dude. You OWN THE ENTIRE BEACH. The fact that you don’t put a few grains in your pocket is absolutely meaningless!!
Don’t get me wrong, though. Let me be very clear about something. I despise the government. I think the government – – any government – – is the worst decision-maker about resource allocation.
If God came down and said, “Tim, tell me what to do; either Elon can keep his $333 billion, or I’ll force him to give it all to the federal government for them to use however they want”, I would tell Heavenly Father that ELON gets to keep it. Why? Because the government would just fuck it up.
A lot of people don’t agree, however, like this guy………..
Well, yes, it’s true, Elon has so much wealth, he could “end” homelessness. I did the math, and even after taxes, Elon would give about $350,000 in cold, hard, cash to every single man, woman and child in America that was homeless.
$350,000 is substantial. In many places, you could actually buy a house, free and clear, with that money. Alternately, you could rent a nice place and be financially secure for about five years, if you minded your finances carefully.
But, c’mon, folks – – of the 550,000 homeless people who suddenly were given a $350,000 check, how many of them do you think would really straighten their lives out once and for all? 20%? 10%? Yeah, if that.
See, here in California, we have the hilarious disaster known as the High Speed Rail project, which was supposed to be DONE by now. But is it done? No. It’s about 10% done. Plus it’s going to cost HUNDREDS of percent more that they promised. Here’s what it looks like………
I guarantee you, 100%, it will never, ever be completed. It WILL be abandoned, however, and only after $100 billion is flushed down the toilet. So, yeah, that’s pretty much how I expect a government to behave.
Indeed, with this $1.2 trillion bill that just got approved, I anticipated a DOZEN equivalent boondoggles as the doomed California HSR project. Yeah, I’m sure that the free broadband Internet that’s going to be provided to the inner cities will be used for the loftiest forms of self-improvement. Give me a break.
In any case, I’ll be fascinated to see what TSLA plays out tomorrow. If it tumbles hard, I think we can play a victory trumpet cry for my premium post on Friday.
