this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Imagine if you will, Elon writing a check to twitter so they have the funds to cover all of his mistakes.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Elon, like Trump, has no money. He has credit and idiots willing to give it to him.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, definitely doesn't have literal billions in Tesla/SpaceX stock that he could liquidate.

I'm so sick of people who clearly don't understand how money works giving their opinions. I don't like Elon any more than the next guy but the internet has truly shown me how hatred of someone leads to the smoothest brain takes imaginable.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He has credit and idiots willing to give it to him.

For which they usually use their stocks as collateral, right?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Read the first sentence "Elon, like trump, has no money."

That's objectively untrue, he has money tied up in non liquid assets that he can sell at whatever their retained value is.

What he's using that for in terms of collateral is irrelevant when he absolutely has plenty of money waiting to be returned to his bank the moment he gets tired of running businesses.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

That would mean Elon admitting he made mistakes

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Now imagine suing the company that hired the employees that you refuse to pay.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How'd his family get rich again? 🤔

[–] gravitas_deficiency 50 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  • emerald mines
  • in South Africa
  • during the Apartheid
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah right rolled a nat 20 😂

[–] gravitas_deficiency 8 points 1 year ago

I mean… does exploiting a systematically subjugated racial majority for profit in a country that was at the time unabashedly and notoriously racist really fall under “luck”…?

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I dont understand how can people get away with not paying their employees

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It’s the US. If there is a country that hates its citizens more than this one, I haven’t heard of it yet.

Any time they can take things from you and give it to companies, they will.

So it shouldn’t really be a surprise.

But if you forget to pay $1 to a company, all hell breaks loose.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It’s the US. If there is a country that hates its citizens more than this one, I haven’t heard of it yet.

Russia has been in the news cycle for over a year because of the war they started.

They imprison anyone critical of the government or the war. They imprisoned a man and deprived him of his fatherly rights because his daughter made an anti-war drawing at school.

They conscript men from poor ethnic regions by offering them a salary that's 10x of their current one. Then they send them to the front with no training or equipment to be cannon fodder.

They are stealing from the pension fund to support their war, which will have catastrophic consequences for the elderly population in the future.

I mean shit. Have you never heard of North Korea?

I guess none of that counts. US bad.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah but it's too easy to compare with non-democratic countries and regimes. You know from the start they are not fair to citizen.

You should compare with the best (if any) not the worst.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Good contrasting points but the bar is set really low. Maybe Europe is a better comparison?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They ought to rename "US citizens" to "US consumers" or "US production units", then they wouldn't have to sue all the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Don’t give them any ideas!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Do you want the real answer? Its because workers rights in this country have been slowly eroding over the last 70 years. So now we've ended up in a situation where everyone keeps their head down and does as their told because they have no power to do anything about it.

Then the companies pay millions to prevent unions by telling us that unions are worthless. But if unions are worthless, why are they spending millions to prevent them ...?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Agreed. Unfortunately, recently fired people are vulnerable and tired, and in financially precarious situations. Does anyone know who’s pursuing this, if it would cover everyone who wasn’t paid, and what happens if Twitter doesn’t follow through?

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think we’ve established that Elon, in fact, cannot run Twitter better if he owned it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

He can sink it though, just like he said with his viral picture.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

$500m to Elon is like $500 to the average American

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not so much at the moment.

He borrowed 44 bn to buy Twitter and has a 1.5 bn payment coming up.

He is of course more liquid than any of us, but the fact that he keeps not paying various bills seems to indicate that he's having cash flow problems and is having to scrounge for his loan payment.

This is just one of many multi million dollar payments that musk and/or Twitter are fighting.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Eh. He can sell his tesla stock anytime he wants cash, he just would have to pay taxes on it and instead would likely borrow against it. Oh the sad pitiful life of our beleaguered oligarchs.

[–] gravitas_deficiency 14 points 1 year ago

That, and selling $1.5B of Tesla stock would tank the stock price. Especially if he does it every single time he has to make a payment.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

He did not borrow 44 billion to buy Twitter.

He put about ~13 billion dollars of debt on Twitter itself, so he had to come up with about 31 billion in equity. He was able to secure third party equity commitments of around 7 billion (Larry Ellison, the Saudis, etc.). He also held a minority interest of about 4 billion in Twitter. He funded the remaining 20 odd billion with a combination of cash (from cash holdings and selling Tesla shares in early 2022) and equity margin loans on his remaining Tesla shares. It is understood that he likely paid off most of his margin loans as he continued to sell further Tesla shares in late 2022.

The 1.5 billion interest expense you mention is just for the bank debt (that the banks still hold, and have been unable to sell), and is Twitter’s responsibility, not Elon’s.

This is a long way of saying that I think the banks will own Twitter within 6-12 months. They will not roll over like landlords, and its far more clear cut for a missed loan payment.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Looks old Musky better pay the piper!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'll lend him my bootstraps at the same rate as my student loans: 12.5%

Disclaimer: I am not American

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I believe Musk is actually a Canadian citizen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Huh..TIL! I thought he was SA

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