As Americans wait to see if Congress passes another stimulus package next week to help people and industries cope with the coronavirus crisis, Elon Musk says the following:
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“Another government stimulus package is not in the best interest of the people.”
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Tesla TSLA CEO,
and SpaceX explained on a Twitter TWTR,
A thread that went viral on Friday afternoon and that while supporting universal basic income, believes that any coronavirus aid from government legislation will be tainted by special interests.
“The government’s goal must be to maximize people’s happiness,” he wrote. “Giving money to each person allows them to decide what meets their needs, rather than the blunt tool of the legislation, which creates selfish special interests.”
He added that the stimulus packages are “stuck to the guts with special interest allocations,” and that he instead supports “direct payments to consumers.”
His words garnered many mocking responses from readers pointing out that Musk’s own companies have received nearly $ 5 billion in government subsidies. Additionally, Texas officials voted to grant Musk at least $ 14.7 million in property tax refunds if Tesla spends at least $ 1.1 billion on his “gigafactory” proposal near Austin.
“Elon Musk, whose Tesla company and wealth were made possible by government subsidies,” wrote a Twitter follower.
“Imagine spending months negotiating a deal to fill your pockets with $ 15 million in taxpayer money … and then turning around and criticizing giving $ 600 / week to people who are unemployed during a pandemic once in a century. another tweeted in a comment. He liked that more than 3,000 times.
Still others criticized the tech billionaire, whose net worth was $ 66.6 billion on Friday afternoon, for considering a stimulus bill with the potential to help millions of Americans keep their businesses open, buy food and avoid losing their homes. . During the latest round of stimulus checks, most Americans said they used the money to pay their bills, then put it into their emergency savings and spent it on essentials like food.
Read more:“It is alarming to see how many Americans used these funds to keep a roof over their heads.”
Furthermore, the additional $ 600 in unemployment benefits, to be suspended on July 31, in addition to the nearly 30 million Americans who already lost their jobs during the pandemic, may mean that consumers will have even less money to spend in stores and shops. online.
Read more: The additional $ 600 in unemployment benefits “gave people a true lifeline,” says Trump, so “we’re doing it again” but in smaller increments.
“The guy says he can pay his bills,” wrote one Twitter user in response.
“We barely survived in our business and have started working 20 hours a week to ration the small amount of business we are receiving,” wrote another respondent, who accused Musk of “tweeting from his ivory tower” regardless of what that more of the country has had to fight to survive during the pandemic.
Musk’s answer to all this? “Twitter sucks,” he tweeted, with a pink emoji.
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