According to the Guardian, Time magazine named Tesla president and billionaire Elon Musk as the 2021 Person of the Year, but this decision was criticized for Musk's attitude toward tax payments and his opposition to unions and ignoring the risk of the epidemic.
Tesla President Elon Musk.
Compiled | Xu Wenxia
Musk's net worth has recently been pushed up to more than $300 billion due to the rise in Tesla's stock price, surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest man. He is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, a space exploration technology company.
Time magazine described Musk as a "clown, genius, social media maniac, visionary, industrialist, performer" and highlighted his wide range of accomplishments, from space exploration technology company SpaceX, which he founded in 2002, solarCity, a new energy company, to Tesla, the world's most valuable car company.
Time magazine named Elon Musk the 2021 Person of the Year.
Time stressed that its Selection of Person of the Year is not a reward, but rather "a recognition of the people who have the greatest influence on current events of the year, for better or worse." The prize has previously been awarded to popes, Ebola health workers and Deng Xiaoping, as well as to Hitler, Stalin and Swedish environmental girl Greta Thunberg. The winner of the year in 1982 was "Computer".
But that honor has drawn sharp criticism in the United States. Musk has been controversial for opposing the "billionaire tax" proposed by some. According to a survey this year by propublica, a nonprofit research agency, the total wealth of Musk and several other notable super-rich people increased significantly between 2014 and 2018, but they paid very little in taxes. Musk's "actual" tax rate is only 3.27%. While legal, the tax rate exposes the inability of U.S. tax laws to tax from gains from assets in the same way that wages, the primary source of income for most Americans, are not taxed.
Senator Elizabeth Warren said on social media that Time's nomination underscores the need for reform of the tax code "so that the Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop taking advantage of others."
Robert Reich, a former labor secretary in the Clinton administration, said the news was a good time to remind people that he was "illegally threatening employees to join a union to deprive them of stock options." This is clearly referring to a tweet about Musk in a 2019 National Labor Relations Board finding: "Why pay union dues and give up stock options in vain?" ”
Musk also sparked controversy in 2020 over tweets that ignored the risk of the outbreak. Despite local orders to "evacuate in place," he kept the Northern California plant open before stopping production. Writer Kurt Eichenwal commented: "Time magazine selected Elon Musk as The Man of the Year, and I didn't over-evaluate it at first until I saw the reasons they gave. The year was the year in which nucleic acid vaccine developers saved millions of dollars to help revive the global economy. Choosing Musk as Man of the Year this year is probably the worst selection ever. ”
Time also mentioned Musk's impact on social media on a group of loyal fans (and investors). He slammed authorities and regulators on social media. These agencies are trying to regulate the executive, who is far from tradition.
Using his 66 million followers on social media, he made quirky offers to the world. Even his fans and investors collapsed because of the turbulent markets they caused. He was sued by stock market regulators for tweeting in 2018 that privatized Tesla. In communications with Tesla this year, the agency claimed that two other tweets were not approved by the company's lawyers before being issued in accordance with the court's settlement requirements in previous cases.
Musk responded to Time on social media: Thank you!
Although Tesla has only started to make a profit in recent years, it is by far the world's most valuable car company, at one point surpassing the $1 trillion market cap this year. The combined value of traditional giants such as Ford and General Motors is less than $200 billion.
Musk said not long ago that SpaceX would try to launch its futuristic Bullet Starship into orbit in January. NASA has signed a contract with SpaceX to use a starship to send astronauts to the moon again as early as 2025. Musk said that eventually he plans to send humans to Mars with reusable spacecraft.
Time also mentioned that Musk recently admitted on social media that half of his tweets were "written while sitting on the toilet." To the president, who provoked the public nerves, Time magazine went on to count the storm caused by these toilet tweets, and finally concluded: "This is a man who is eager to save our planet and give us a new planet to live on." ”
The selection was questioned on social media. Netizens have listed other figures as more recognizable people of the year this year. American journalist Margaret Sullivan commented: Maybe Time magazine should change the criteria for the selection of the person of the year - since we are in such an "era".
Reference Links:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/14/elon-musk-time-person-of-the-year-worst-ever-choice-say-critics