Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk Feud Over Income Inequality (and Space Travel) – ‘Right Now, We Need to Focus on Earth’
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Vance Cariaga
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Katie Wudel
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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Bernie Sanders and Elon Musk have differing views about wealth, but anyone who needed a reminder got one on Twitter over the weekend.
See: Should We Raise the Minimum Wage to $15? Take Our PollFind: These 15 Billionaires Got Richer During the Pandemic
As reported by The Independent, Sanders, the independent U.S. senator from Vermont, and Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, spent the weekend crafting dueling tweets over issues ranging from income inequality to space travel.
We are in a moment in American history where two guys — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — own more wealth than the bottom 40% of people in this country. That level of greed and inequality is not only immoral. It is unsustainable.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 18, 2021
Sanders got the ball rolling on Thursday when he tweeted: “We are in a moment in American history where two guys — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — own more wealth than the bottom 40% of people in this country. That level of greed and inequality is not only immoral. It is unsustainable.”
See: This Ultra-Rich Boys’ Club Just Got Its 6th Member – Warren BuffettFind: The World’s 2,000 Billionaires Have More Wealth Than Almost 5 Billion People Combined
Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, countered two days later with a tweet of his own: “I am accumulating resources to help make life multiplanetary & extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”
The reference was to SpaceX’s plan to send people to Mars over the next decade to colonize the planet.
Space travel is an exciting idea, but right now we need to focus on Earth and create a progressive tax system so that children don’t go hungry, people are not homeless and all Americans have healthcare. The level of inequality in America is obscene and a threat to our democracy. https://t.co/CbMWYnPFUx
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 21, 2021
On Sunday Sanders shot back with a tweet saying that space travel “is an exciting idea, but right now we need to focus on Earth and create a progressive tax system so that children don’t go hungry, people are not homeless and all Americans have healthcare. The level of inequality in America is obscene and a threat to our democracy.”
See: 21 Billionaires Who Lost Big in 2020Find: What Biden’s Proposed Tax Hikes Mean for Average Americans
Sanders has long been a critic of income inequality, and intends to use his seat as the new chair of the Senate’s Budget Committee to help influence legislation and discourse on pay disparities and corporate subsidies.
One of his biggest targets is Musk, the world’s second-richest person with a net worth of $170 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. Amazon CEO Bezos, is ranked first with a net worth of $181 billion.
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