Tesla CEO Elon Musk got in a heated exchange with Senator Elizabeth Warren on Twitter on Wednesday.
Warren went after Musk over a sensitive issue for the world’s richest person: taxes. The Senator tweeted on Tuesday: “Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.”
To which Musk initially replied, “Stop projecting!” with a link to an article accusing Warren of lying about having Native American heritage.
“You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just get mad for no reason,” the multi-billionaire added, “Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen.”
Musk, who became the world’s richest person this year, is worth roughly $251 billion. An investigation conducted by ProPublica found that Musk and many other billionaires paid little to no taxes. But all that will change this year, as Musk is gearing up to pay at least $7.6 billion in taxes.
“And if you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year,” he tweeted at Warren.
Elon Musk named Person of the Year by TIME Magazine
Warren’s tweet was partially criticizing TIME Magazine for naming Musk as their Person of the Year for 2021. TIME made the announcement on Monday, saying that “The richest man in the world does not own a house and has recently been selling off his fortune. He tosses satellites into orbit and harnesses the sun; he drives a car he created that uses no gas and barely needs a driver. With a flick of his finger, the stock market soars or swoons.”
In its encomium on the iconic figure in business today, TIME goes on to state “His startup rocket company, SpaceX, has leapfrogged Boeing and others to own America’s spacefaring future. His car company, Tesla, controls two-thirds of the multibillion-dollar electric-vehicle market it pioneered and is valued at a cool $1 trillion.
“That has made Musk, with a net worth of more than $250 billion, the richest private citizen in history, at least on paper.”
There seems to be no area of technology that Musk shies away from trying to improve upon, with his “Starlink” array of telecommunications satellites now in the skies over Greece.
Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk’s Space X corporation, provides internet access through a network of low-Earth-orbiting (Low Earth Orbit-LEO) satellites. It has already launched its the first part of its associated activities in Greece.
A small group of users can already use its internet services. Soon, the Starlink internet hardware will be sent to those who have pre-ordered it.
The regulatory framework for the standard satellite dishes necessary for satellite-based internet, so that it works along the model of satellite TV, has already been signed. The difference between internet “satellite dishes” and usual satellite TV, however, is that the former are both receivers and transmitters.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
