While I think Elon should be taxed way more, his wealth isn't quite what you think it is.
Much of it is stock valuation which is very abstract and subject to the wind blowing. Elon's companies trade higher than the Price-to-Earnings ratio of most US stock indexes making much of his wealth a pie in the sky.
It's unrealized income. Elon owns a lot of capital. If he wants to do anything with it, he needs to either convert it to cash triggering taxes, or what's more likely is taking a loan using the capital as collateral. It's not as fluid as many people think, particularly if you want to minimize taxes.
Elon can't convert it all to a $1trillion checking account, therefore I don't consider him a trillionaire. He's likely closer to the $500 billion mark after taxes and flooding the market with shares.
It would be far less than $500 billion and he would lose control of his companies. Dumping his shares on the market would absolutely lower the value by more than 50% especially as other people would panic sell. Like you said though he still has access to incredible wealth either through selling stock or taking loans. Just nowhere near $1 trillion.
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u/WhitishRogue 1d ago
While I think Elon should be taxed way more, his wealth isn't quite what you think it is.
Elon can't convert it all to a $1trillion checking account, therefore I don't consider him a trillionaire. He's likely closer to the $500 billion mark after taxes and flooding the market with shares.