Elon Musk. Twitter. Babylon Bee.

[Josh]

is non-Christian, how do you feel about someone who's net worth is $251 BILLION?

My belief is that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven; indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle!

[Ken]

how do you feel about someone who's net worth is $251 BILLION?

As he shared in interviews before. Most of that is valued from stocks of companies he is shareholders in. Most of those companies, he started and worked massive hours to build it. He does not have that cash sitting around. It is just valued at that since he owns shares. Shares of companies he created and employ many people who make livings from those companies, from what I hear quite good wages at those companies.

I like it much better than some stock broker just getting rich off someone's else's work. At least Elon has put in the work and is producing a tangible product.

So do you think there is a moral quality to wealth based on how someone earned it?

[ken_sylvania]

User engagement on Threads has continued to fall after an initial surge in sign-ups, putting pressure on parent Meta Platforms META -2.73%decrease; red down pointing triangle to roll out new features for its nascent microblogging app.

For a second week in a row, the number of daily active users declined on Threads, falling to 13 million, down about 70% from a July 7 peak, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The average time users spend on the iOS and Android apps has also decreased to four minutes from 19 minutes. The average time spent for Android users in the U.S. dropped to five minutes from a peak of 21 minutes on launch day, according to SimilarWeb, a digital data and analytics company.

Twitter’s daily active users remain steady at about 200 million, and average time spent is at 30 minutes a day, according to Sensor Tower estimates.

[RZehr]

With Meta, there’s always a catch. Sure, you can sign up for the company’s newest Twitter clone Threads. You can use your Instagram account to get a unique badge to show you’re now a Thread head. The thing is, you can deactivate your Threads profile, and you can delete the app, but deleting your profile on Threads will also delete your entire Instagram account as well.
https://gizmodo.com/how-to-delete-threa ... 1850609655

[Sudsy]

is non-Christian, how do you feel about someone who's net worth is $251 BILLION?

My belief is that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven; indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle!

And the following verses say - Matthew 19:25-26

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

[Ken]

With Meta, there’s always a catch. Sure, you can sign up for the company’s newest Twitter clone Threads. You can use your Instagram account to get a unique badge to show you’re now a Thread head. The thing is, you can deactivate your Threads profile, and you can delete the app, but deleting your profile on Threads will also delete your entire Instagram account as well.
https://gizmodo.com/how-to-delete-threa ... 1850609655

I guess that makes sense because they are the same profile. Threads is essentially just the text feature of Instagram much like Facebook Messenger is just the instant messaging feature of Facebook.

[Szdfan]

User engagement on Threads has continued to fall after an initial surge in sign-ups, putting pressure on parent Meta Platforms META -2.73%decrease; red down pointing triangle to roll out new features for its nascent microblogging app.

For a second week in a row, the number of daily active users declined on Threads, falling to 13 million, down about 70% from a July 7 peak, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The average time users spend on the iOS and Android apps has also decreased to four minutes from 19 minutes. The average time spent for Android users in the U.S. dropped to five minutes from a peak of 21 minutes on launch day, according to SimilarWeb, a digital data and analytics company.

Twitter’s daily active users remain steady at about 200 million, and average time spent is at 30 minutes a day, according to Sensor Tower estimates.

I’m not surprised. Threads isn’t as good as Twitter when it’s bad from a usability standpoint. Not a fan of the steady stream of content from people I don’t follow and no way to filter it.

[Robert]

So do you think there is a moral quality to wealth based on how someone earned it?

I think abundant life is a natural by product of hard work in an open and free market. I am not jealous of other's abundant life. I am thankful for mine, of which took 40+ years of hard work to achieve.

I don't really care much about Twitter. Tesla I am still holding out on, but it may be the thing that transforms the economy and culture. Cheap, dependable transportation leads to abundant life in a free open market.

I am thankful for SpaceX. I think it is a very beneficial thing for humanity.

Zuckerberg only created a website. I see little benefit in it. I think it has done more harm then good. I see little product in facebook/instagram.

Elon Musk did not get his wealth from generational transfer. He is making his from innovation and productivity.

[barnhart]

Just to offer an alternative opinion to Robert's evaluation on Musk wealth....
In my observation oligarchical wealth is created by breaking rules (cheating), destroying existing economic systems with little care for human cost and access to government subsidy. Musk is most egregiously connected to the latter. His wealth generation program would not have been possible without no-bid government contracts. Beyond that his cars are recipients of staggering subsidy through rebates, at one time amounting to more than $7,000 per unit.

I won't deny his moxy or creativity, but his wealth deserves clear eyed scrutiny. Where I am from they say "When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had help gettin' there."

[Josh]

Just to offer an alternative opinion to Robert's evaluation on Musk wealth....
In my observation oligarchical wealth is created by breaking rules (cheating), destroying existing economic systems with little care for human cost and access to government subsidy. Musk is most egregiously connected to the latter. His wealth generation program would not have been possible without no-bid government contracts. Beyond that his cars are recipients of staggering subsidy through rebates, at one time amounting to more than $7,000 per unit.

I won't deny his moxy or creativity, but his wealth deserves clear eyed scrutiny. Where I am from they say "When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he had help gettin' there."

Of course, certain people have crowed loudly how evil gasoline powered cars and how badly we need electric cars. Musk finally delivered a widely available electric car that anyone could buy - basically the first to do this. (The big 3 also spent lots of government grants but never made it to offering all electric cars to the public.) And I have seen not much scrutiny at all of government funding to bail out GM and Chrysler, which far exceeded anything paid go Mr Musk.