The United States is more polarized than ever. Liberals and conservatives rarely agree on anything, but virtually all polls show that the vast majority of Americans believe the rich should pay their fair share of taxes.
Billionaires pay barely any income tax, however, so the public is demanding that lawmakers do something about this. But as the U.S. Congress debated how much the rich should be taxed, billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk came up with an interesting idea.
Read more below.
On Saturday, as CNBC reported, Musk -- who is the richest man in the world -- addressed the need to tax the wealthy on Twitter.
The billionaire posted a poll, vowing to abide by the results.
"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?" he asked his followers, who were able to vote "Yes" or "No."
As it turns out, 57 percent of them think he should sell 10 percent of his stock in the electric vehicle company.
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As The Verge reported, more than 3.5 million people voted in the poll.
Musk has still not commented on the results of the poll. Instead, he attacked Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, who has been calling for new taxes on the top one percent.
"Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax," Wyden wrote in a tweet.
"Why does ur pp look like u just came?" Musk replied, referring to the senator's profile picture.
The Twitter poll caused Tesla shares to drop, closing down nearly 5 percent on Monday.
"Without dismissing execution risk, Tesla is getting to a position where it can balance affordability and speed, goals which are as important as profitability in Elon Musk’s vision," analyst Philippe Houchois explained.
"Tesla looks set to gain share from large OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], potentially claiming a disproportionate share of the industry profit pool in the coming 3-5 years as legacies enter the margin dilutive EV transition phase," he noted.
But just how popular is taxing the rich?
In a Vox and Data for Progress poll conducted in October, 71 percent of voters said they support raising taxes on the wealthiest two percent of Americans to pay for President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan.
Fifty percent of Republicans and 86 percent of Democrats in the survey agreed that the wealthiest Americans need to be taxed to pay for the plan. The same poll found that 65 percent of Americans overall support tax increases on corporations and capital gains.
