Thank You, Mr. Elon Musk [Opinion]

People like Mr. Elon Musk don’t come along often. He is a brilliant man. We are lucky the South African born man lives and creates jobs here. [Opinion]

Elon Musk is an amazing entrepreneur. He brought us the Tesla, SpaceX, and is a major job creator in the USA. He is the world’s richest person.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren took a well-deserved broadside from the USA’s No.1 taxpayer.

Seems Elon Musk, exasperated with Sen. Warren’s calls for the wealthy to “pay more taxes,” chastised Warren’s big spending Senate budgets and called her out for what amounted to be false claims of being “Native American.”

A liberal rally around the Massachusetts Senator followed immediately with a salvo of attacks on Elon Musk from the far-left talk show talent who are also multimillionaires.

It is reported that Musk and those financially successful Americans don’t pay enough in taxes. I guess we should ask what is enough in taxes?

So, if you are employed by a Fortune 100 firm (disclosure: I once was) and you reside in, say, California and you earn a salary of $500,000, your employer will withhold and pay state and federal taxes of 52% or $ 252,000. That’s a lot in taxes!  Seems almost unfair to take half of a woman’s or man’s wages.

I don’t know about Mrs. Warren but to most of us paying half of your wages in taxes seems more than enough. It won’t be a surprise, but I think income taxes are way too high on Americans who get high salaries working for a living.

In most cases these people went to some very pricey colleges, are top producers in technology, manufacturing, law, medical, stock market, sales, development and many other fields. We should be happy they make such great incomes and pay most of our taxes.

It is a fact, albeit inconvenient for Sen. Warren, that our high-income earners also create many high paying jobs in a number of job sectors here in our country and in some cases abroad.

Sen. Warren is an intelligent lady. She taught at Harvard (Disclosure: I went to Harvard Kennedy School.) but I am not as brilliant as the Senator.

Just to be sure, I went to Webster’s Dictionary to look up the word “Fair.” Here is what Webster’s had to say: Let’s get this out of the way first. “Fair” is a “Noun, Verb, Adjective, or Adverb” and has numerous definitions.

The one I will share here is as follows: “Conforming with established rules.” I chose to use the adjective version as it fits my narrative.

Most of America’s top wage earners have accountants. They follow the US and State tax codes. In paying income tax, they follow “conforming,” and established rules and regulations for filing taxes.

So do the Fortune 100 and all those small-business women and men who create about 50% of all our jobs. If they buy new computers, cars, trucks, machines, pay for gas, vehicle insurance and other things that create direct or induced jobs with all that money, I am happy for all of us who benefit!

We shouldn’t have a problem with them writing off a new pickup (built by union workers) or new Caterpillar heavy equipment (built by union workers) or buying whatever they need to produce the goods and services we need here in the USA and export for sale around the world.

Back to Sen. Warren. She earns a salary of $ 174,000. She gets a W-2 so her take home pay annually is about $ 87,000 after taxes.  After a single term of six years in office and without paying a penny into a pension fund, every former U.S. Senator receives a lifetime pension of $ $174,000. For the record Congress also gets a similar pension and lifetime benefits.

They also vote for their own pay raises and voted themselves lifetime medical care with an annual value of $ 36,000. Those figures increase the longer a Senator lives after serving our country.

We should understand that a Senator’s job is very important! They work almost seven days a week and an 80-hour week is about the average they spend doing their jobs for their respective state.  What they earn is justifiable.

People like Mr. Elon Musk don’t come along often. He is a brilliant man. We are lucky the South African born man lives and creates jobs here.

Because he is great at what he does like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Dolly Parton, Oprah Winfrey, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Mike Trout, Tom Brady, or you pick your self-made favorite multimillionaire, many of our Senators and Congressional members shouldn’t single them out for a tax hike every time they want a new program.

I do believe Mrs. Warren is intelligent and accomplished. Still, I am not a fan. I am a history buff and enjoy reading biographies of women and men who served in office, the military, civil rights leaders, or those who made a difference in our lives. The American success stories.

One of those important lessons comes from a man who did great things, was multitalented, had many flaws, was wealthy, and one of his many admonishments was “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything you have.”

Sometimes you get the felling these days that 48 Senators might just do that. If you think the quote was spot on you might also enjoy the author’s other works, like the Declaration of Independence, etc.

Jefferson was a founder of the Democratic Party but likely would find himself to the far right of Sen. Warren and those who legislate like her.

As for Mr. Musk, thank you for making the USA a leader in high quality electric car manufacturing and returning the nation to space.

Most Americans appreciate the jobs, investments, and technology you and your team bring to us. Oh, and yes, thanks for being our No. 1 taxpayer in the USA this year.

Congratulations on TIME naming you Man of the Year for 2021!