Elon Musk now owns 9.2% of twitter...update.. will soon be the sole owner as Board of Directors accepts his purchase offer

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Zorba

Lifer
Oct 22, 1999
15,286
10,882
136
Something tells me Elon dont really understand that his tantrums has consequences...

Like burning your brand on the stake for the return value of nothing. Elon has officially positioned himself on #AntiAbortion and #TeamTreason - many times now.

Its not cool to own a Tesla anymore you dolt.

This is a perfect example of why stock buy backs shouldn't be a thing. This has nothing to do with "Tesla" thinking the stock is under valued. It has to do with Elon, being the only vote that matters and Elon wanting to artificially pump up the price of his shares using Tesla's money. It is pure stock manipulation for the sole benefit of Elon.

Not as obvious elsewhere, but it is the same thing everywhere. Buybacks directly benefit the top executives who are compensated with stock and are often judged based on stock price. No company buy back their shares when they are cheap and no company sells them when they are expensive, 2020 was a perfect example of that. All these companies that had squandered a decade of profits on buy backs, then sold shares at record lows to stay afloat.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
This is a perfect example of why stock backs shouldn't be a thing. This has nothing to do with "Tesla" thinking the stock is under valued. It has to do with Elon, being the only vote that matters and Elon wanting to artificially pump up the price of his shares using Tesla's money. It is pure stock manipulation for the sole benefit of Elon.

Not as obvious elsewhere, but it is the same thing everywhere. Buybacks directly benefit the top executives who are compensated with stock and are often judged based on stock price. No company buy back there shares when they are cheap and no company sells them when they are expensive, 2020 was a perfect example of that. All these companies that had squandered a decade of profits on buy backs, then sold shares at record lows to stay afloat.
This is totally Musk trying to lose less money on his stupid Twitter deal.
 

HurleyBird

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2003
2,760
1,455
136
Not as obvious elsewhere, but it is the same thing everywhere. Buybacks directly benefit the top executives who are compensated with stock and are often judged based on stock price.

Buybacks only hurt the company by making it poorer, and by extension, harm society. My faith in the "new AMD" greatly diminished the moment they began issuing massive buybacks. I have a substantially more positive view of Elon than most here do, but it's pretty obvious his plan with buybacks is to enrich himself and/or to increase his stake by diminishing everyone else's.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
If they actually had to pay that much they'd leave the country and move their businesses too. I'm all for making them pay but we still need to be realistic here. You need to look at the dollar amounts and not just the percentages. If you make 100k and pay 10% that would be 10k - way less than what you pay now. If someone that makes $1,000,000 pays 10% that's 100k - your entire salary. Way more than what they pay now.

If there is a way to encourage rich to pay their employees more that would be another way to go about it, but just taxing them more is simply removing money from the economy that could otherwise be spent and go in other businesses' pockets. We'd be naive to think it would go towards health care. We already pay lot of taxes as is, and our health care system is still crumbling.
So I’m going to assume you’re never going to say what programs you want to cut.

I hope taking a minute to think about your proposal has made you reconsider it. If not, we are of course always open to hearing your proposals.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,156
21,281
136
I have already posted a right wing report stating the Squirrel's provincial net tax burden is negative. Meaning he gets more than he pays. So I welcome cuts to rural services so that I can pay less tax.

I would love if these rural conservatives got their government infrastructure and services cut to reflect the reality of their drag on the economy.

Just for like two years, so these conservative rural morons that are willfully ignorant and destroying out countries can come crying back like the jackwagons they are
 
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NWRMidnight

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2001
3,048
2,654
136
As a start, how about this:


Then there's the WE scandal and many other scandals where billions were wasted. The arrivecan app cost millions, and a programmer built a clone copy for fun for pennies. This amount of waste is constant with the government. There is probably lot of stuff we don't hear about too. I recall a TEMPORARY skating rink being built for a couple million, and it never ended up working because of the weather. So many dumb little things like that add up to a lot.

Then just look at the amount of people that work for the government.

In 2010 there was 282,980 who worked for the federal government alone, that's not even counting provincial.

In 2021 there was 319,601! Who are these 36,621 new employees and what do they do? Why could the government function with less 10 years ago than now? Even the number 10 years ago is high. They brag about how they "added new jobs" but it's all government jobs, that's not actually good for the economy at all. It's a burden on everyone.

The entire government needs to be downsized and slimmed down. We would all benefit from that because we would have more money to buy more things that we work hard for, instead of it going to a vacuum.

Well let's start with the 600 billion I posted about. That is about 15 thousand dollars per person in taxes. (in reality more because babies and very young children don't pay taxes) I could sure use 15k in my pockets instead of whatever the hell that 600 billion went. And that's only one incident.

This video puts it in a perspective that a liberal can understand:


And this is 2019, we're in even worse shape now!


I am a little confused.. are we talking about the US or Canada? I was under the impression we are talking about US taxes, but you keep throwing up stuff about Canada. So, which are we talking about.. Better yet.. which country are you talking about? Once you make that clear, then you can give us examples of what you believe can be cut, as already requested by others.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
97,032
16,250
126
I am a little confused.. are we talking about the US or Canada? I was under the impression we are talking about US taxes, but you keep throwing up stuff about Canada. So, which are we talking about.. Better yet.. which country are you talking about? Once you make that clear, then you can give us examples of what you believe can be cut, as already requested by others.
Squirrel is Canadian. He's talking about Canadian government.

Here is the public account he was railing about.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
I said it several times, clearly you all can't read and more interested in personal attacks. I give up.
You have never once said it despite being asked by multiple people multiple times.

As I said the reason you won’t answer is you can’t.
 

brycejones

Lifer
Oct 18, 2005
27,739
26,901
136
I said it several times, clearly you all can't read and more interested in personal attacks. I give up.
@Red Squirrel Please link the specific posts where you identified specific programs. I certainly don't recall anything specific from your posts in this thread but I may have missed something. Shouldn't be hard for you do to since you say you've already done it.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,165
30,117
146
I said it several times.

No, you didn't.

"Cut programs" is not at all the same as detailing what programs.

LoL, you come on here complaining about people getting "worthless degrees!" spending way too much money on an education that is pointless, just like every other generally uneducated conservative on here...because only tech matters! But it seems you fail at communication quite regularly and could actually benefit from a "lesser education" that would help you in communicating with other humans.

You don't know how to argue or present information, or debate in an adult way with other people. You just type out platitudes that don't mean anything. You think they do because they are just regurgitated talking points from the handful of sources that feed you only the information you trust. You've never bothered to investigate if there is any substance behind these platitudes that you regurgitate for others' consumption, because the rest of these sources are good enough for you: they've probably promised to end the tyrannical evil of abortion or institute a theocratic government that will make for only a Christian state, eliminating all other heathen religions or some other related fundamentalist conservative nonsense. So, everything else they complain about "the state" must be right for that goal of creating the christo-nationalist state that is your only real desire here.

If you had any ability to read and understand context--you know, actually question your sources and display any real curiosity if there is any data or any actual policy behind these claims of "Cut programs!"--maybe as simple as, well, what programs?--then you wouldn't be having these issues right now. As it stands, your education failed you quite spectacularly because you are incapable of doing the most basic thing for members of modern human society: communicate.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
If your answer to "what programs would you cut to address the issue?" doesn't start with Defense/SS/Medicaid/Medicare then you're not putting a dent in anything.
Well he's from Canada so defense is less of an issue but the remainder is the same thing. According to this article ~60% of Canada's total government expenditures are on their equivalent of social security, health care, and education.


Since he wants to lower government revenues by 80% that means even if you eliminated ALL other government spending (so no police, no fire departments, no roads, etc.) you would need to cut the health care budget by around 40% from current levels.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,156
21,281
136
@Red Squirrel Please link the specific posts where you identified specific programs. I certainly don't recall anything specific from your posts in this thread but I may have missed something. Shouldn't be hard for you do to since you say you've already done it.

As we see from his statements he thinks he answered the question, which he did not even do at all, but in a messed up conservative's drone mind they don't exist in reality.

It's really sad to see all these melted minds, because they are ruining our countries.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
As we see from his statements he thinks he answered the question, which he did not even do at all, but in a messed up conservative's drone mind they don't exist in reality.

It's really sad to see all these melted minds, because they are ruining our countries.
I think the more likely answer is the 'cut taxes by 80%!' is something he said without putting any thought into the real world consequences. Then when asked to address them he knew he couldn't but also didn't want to look dumb so he tried to shift the argument onto something else and when that failed waved his arms for a bit, declared victimhood, and left.
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
24,030
13,539
136
Also, on those tax cuts... what happens to inflation if you were to flood the zone with money, as in a 20% taxcut for everyone.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,156
21,281
136
I think the more likely answer is the 'cut taxes by 80%!' is something he said without putting any thought into the real world consequences. Then when asked to address them he knew he couldn't but also didn't want to look dumb so he tried to shift the argument onto something else and when that failed waved his arms for a bit, declared victimhood, and left.

Yes it would be just a bit of a shake your head thing except there are tens of millions like that now and their votes are destroying our countries.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,736
126
lets return to musk and twitter:

cant belive he's going through with the $54/share buyout.
the stock is only at $54 because it's being propped up by his buy-out price.

why didnt musk argue that twitter is now worth less due to the stock market tanking?