Is Elon Musk A Corporate Welfare King

What is the most satisfying job profession?

The one that gives   you "flow". Flow: characterized by a feeling of great absorption,   engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time,   food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.    For a reference see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who studies flow, the state of   focused attention in which time slips by effortlessly. Just twenty minutes a   day of flow will guarantee to keep you deeply satisfied and without   depression.     There are many examples, a soccer player maneuvering the ball gloriously   down the field, a writer deep in thought and words slip effortlessly on the   page, even a dish washer engaged in perfecting the best way to get the job   done.     The most satisfying job in the world is the the one that gives you flow.   Only you can know what that is. Dan Pink wrote a great synopsis in Drive.   There he recommends Mihaly's Flow Test: set an alarm that goes off randomly   throughout the day. Once the timer goes off, note what you're doing and   whether you're in a state of flow. Take a look on this one:    Finally profesion Enjoy

Why isn’t there more support for simplifying the U.S. federal tax code?

Changing tax bracket percentages or cutoff points is not simplifying the tax code. The progressive tax is one of the simpler parts and can be looked up in the tables in the tax booklet, calculated on an elementary school calculator, or with free tax software. Anyone saying he’s simplifying the tax code by giving huge tax breaks to high realized income is blowing smoke up your hindside.Even if we eliminated EVERY SINGLE tax break our tax code would still need to be complicated because there are so many different ways that people acquire money and they will all do there utmost to avoid paying tax on their acquisitions. Which is unfair.At a very low level illegal drug dealers, wait-staff in diners receiving tips, and housekeepers are all evading taxes unlawfully. But that’s not much money for a poorly compensated part of the work force. For the most part those of us paid by wages or salary by an employer are probably paying what we should be.Where things get complicated and where the unfairness aspect of this really starts to make a difference is when people are acquiring large sums of money not through a regular job but by moving money, real estate, assets, businesses that have not been taxed yet and somehow, not paying taxes on it, ever.The tax code has to be complicated to specify what and when these flows of money have to be declared as realized income.We have to look no further than our head of state for an example of someone who managed to not pay taxes on money he acquired by claiming losses incurred by other people.I haven’t seen anything in the current tax overhaul that deals with any of this. Except possibly elimination of the estate tax where very wealthy couples get to pass many millions on to their family dynasty with no capital gains tax paid whatsoever! (if I’m wrong about this, please correct me.)

What would Elon Musk’s companies be like without taxpayer’s money, e.g. tax-advantaged structures, incentives, and NASA contracts?

Well, they would not have had this existing present as their future then and more importantly the world would have missed out on some of the best tech revolutions of our generation. That is the single sentence answer but, from what i see, you are referring to three points:a. The Tax benefits that is offered to products like Tesla cars or the SolarCity power generator installations.b. The loan received by Tesla from US Department of Energy in 2011.c. NASA contracts to SpaceXFor a. The tax benefits provided are not specifically to those companies, but instead to the sector. That is present in many countries. Even in India, my country, we have certain benefits from some local governments for installing solar power and rain water harvesting at homes. The benefits are provided to the public to encourage the change to better tech or way of life, at the least a sustainable one. Our generation is heavily dependent of oil and other non-renewable resources and that needs to change. Since, money is the main aim of the human race, the government provides that. For b. The loan received by Tesla is a loan, cannot stress that LOAN part enough. It was not a bankruptcy claim or such. It was a loan provided to ensure that a sustainable energy product come to the market and gets a rightful opportunity to compete. It worked. Now, we have an electric car which is nothing but awesome. Also, Tesla repaid the loan before deadline and in fact, the US taxpayer made a profit of about $40 million from that loan.For c. NASA contracts were given to SpaceX because they are able to send cargo up to space for lower costs and also because NASA can reduce dependence on foreign institutions to send their satellites and supplies. The advantage is more to the country because NASA is giving the money to a US company located in US and thereby ensuring the wealth is rotating within the country itself and not going out of the country. This is the same good India is feeling about our ISRO.Hope, this covers the view

What is your most liberal viewpoint?

I have many, actually:I think we need wage equality. In the US the average woman's annual salary has been cited as 78% to 82% of that of the average man's, and I think it’s unjust. I don’t believe that someone can gain more than another based solely on their gender. There’s also a considerable racial wage gap that is still, unfortunately, prevalent today even after desegregation and the signing of the Civil Rights Act.I’m pro-choice when it comes to abortion. I think that women should have the choice to make a decision with her body.I’m for universal health care. I think decent health care should be a right and not a privilege. Everyone should be equally given the opportunity to go see the doctor when they need treatment for a certain illness or are injured, regardless of their socioeconomic standing.I think taxes should be increased on the wealthy to provide for the lower classes. It’ll do a great job of handling the problem with wealth inequality that we have over here.I think undocumented immigrants should receive amnesty. I think it would be better for immigrants to be welcomed and receive all of the same educational and health benefits (like welfare and social security) that citizens receive rather than be arrested.I’m fine with same-sex marriage. Marriage is simply the alliance of people who love each other. Whether an individual is straight, gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual doesn’t matter at all. If they want to marry, then let them.I don’t think that we should be messing with other countries because our government disagrees with their leaders or policies. To many people, it’s okay when we invade other countries and interfere in their elections because we’re “defending democracy”, but if Russia, China, Iran, etc. does any of that it’s considered a threat to world peace. Quite strange.