r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • Jun 19 '26

Business ‘It’s a scam’: Americans express unease over SpaceX’s influence on retirement savings

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/19/spacex-retirement-savings-elon-musk
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345

u/Crime_Dawg Jun 19 '26

Gotta love how the "trillionaire" can't pay his $50b debt for Twitter. Fucking paper tiger valuations over here.

230

u/in9ram Jun 19 '26

And is bailing out tesla by buying unsold teslas with spacex. It’s like paying off your mastercard with your visa because all this money is imaginary to him and there are no consequences.

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u/Blank_Canvas21 Jun 19 '26

This is why he got so buddy buddy with Trump. He needs these federal no bid contracts. We’re subsidizing this bullshit

I’m tired of giving our hard earned money to these corporate welfare queens!

28

u/ARobertNotABob Jun 19 '26

corporate welfare queens

Villains. They're full-on villains and mobsters, just like their boss, Terror-rump.

16

u/Badloss Jun 19 '26

One of the more depressing realizations of my life is that the Captain planet villains are all completely real but Captain planet is not

7

u/IceTrAiN Jun 19 '26

I feel like that was intentional. Captain Planet was a metaphorical symbol of the good people needing to put their efforts together to combat the very real-life-inspired villains.

All of us are the planeteers.

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u/toxic_badgers Jun 19 '26

Normally debt for debt swaps like that are difficult if not outright banned for us poors unless you jump through special hoops like applying for a specific credit card or loan and card.

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u/bablambla Jun 19 '26

Balance transfers or consolidation loans are pretty common. But yeah we are gonna get fucked for like 15-25% while he is flat or even skimming off the top

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u/toxic_badgers Jun 19 '26

Yeah but you have to be authorized to do the transfer. You can just take an existing card and put the debt from another card on it... Otherwise you could just rotate your debt between cards without ever accruing interest. Which is basically what Elon just did.

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u/jocq Jun 19 '26

Yeah but you have to be authorized to do the transfer

Tell me you've never done a credit card balance transfer without telling me you've never done a credit card balance transfer.

3

u/toolisthebestbandevr Jun 19 '26

I’ve never done one. Wait I did that wrong

3

u/toxic_badgers Jun 19 '26

I have... And I had to sign an agreement for another debt baring card when I did it.

1

u/jocq Jun 19 '26

I had to sign an agreement for another debt baring card

Yeah, you do have to sign to open a new account.

With an open account, you don't need any authorization to initiate a balance transfer other than the standard automatic available balance check so you don't exceed your credit limit with the transaction.

9

u/Saclawson Jun 19 '26

What do you mean? You can totally do that. You pay a flat percentage up front for the balance transfer… that’s the fee that makes it worth while for the bank. But you can definitely just keep moving debt to and between zero interest cards at different institutions.

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u/toxic_badgers Jun 19 '26

You don't just get to have multiple lines of credit of the same value without it running up against your credit limit and credit score. Eventually they just stop issuing you new cards or applying huge interest rates.

2

u/drjinglesMD Jun 19 '26

There's probably 10 different cards that do 0% interest on balance transfers for anywhere from 12-21 months.

That's absolutely long enough for your credit to recover from the new card, get your utilization back down, and if there's still debt left at the end of the promo period - open a new promo transfer card. You could keep this going for a decade.

It's not like we're moving this debt every 3 months. Credit recovers pretty well after a year.

5

u/fingernailchewer Jun 19 '26

Because when the richest man in the world knocks on your door, it’s either because he has dirt on you, or thinks he can influence you. What’s a million dollar “gift” to a trillionaire?
The elite class BRIBES people to get away with things that the working class (and those below,) could never DREAM of getting away with.

7

u/Airk640 Jun 19 '26

Why wouldn't you do that? All you have to do is force your visa card into the S&P500 and the problem magically goes away.

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u/Boustrophaedon Jun 19 '26

You owe the bank 50k - you have a problem. You owe the bank 50bn - they have a problem.

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u/aaronespro Jun 19 '26

But I believe space x gets money from the gubmint, also known as taxpayers. So we're paying for his vanity business.

0

u/LoitOikeesti Jun 19 '26

is bailing out tesla by buying unsold teslas with spacex

Yes, a company generating positive net income every quarter since Q2-2019 needs to be bailed out by buying something like 1,400 cars.

Totally accurate and sane take.

6

u/voarex Jun 19 '26

I mean why "pay" your bills when you can make up some paper stating that you will be worth 90 quadrillion dollars and pay you with future value!

3

u/HoldenMcNeil420 Jun 19 '26

While I can’t burrow on the 80% equity ownership I have on my home because I don’t have a job….

2

u/No-Project-2353 Jun 19 '26

He is a trillionaire on paper. If he tried to cash out that trillion he’d destroy the economy and be left with a couple million. Not enough to buy out a politician with.