
We don’t need Elon Musk - iafrikan
https://www.iafrikan.com/2018/09/12/elon-musk-technology-startups-silicon-valley-innovation/
======
slivym
> According to the employment website indeed.com, the average salary at Tesla
> ranges from approximately US$38k to US$147k. Not bad money really, but it
> means that even a top earner at Tesla would take 133,000 years to amass
> Musk’s fortune. So, either what he does is 133,000 times more important than
> what they do, or this is a massive confidence trick.

What someone EARNS is not the same thing as what they are WORTH. Elon Musk
doesn't EARN 20Bn a year. He is WORTH 20Bn. Is it fair that he's worth 133,000
times what someone earns in a year? Probably not. Is it relevant to compare
what Elon Musk is worth - primarily due to his work at Zip2, X.com and
primarily denominated in Tesla stock which is highly variable, to the day to
day pay of someone collecting a pay check from Tesla?

What is really bizarre about this article is it's totally economically
illiterate. The reason Elon Musk is worth billions is because he owns a
significant proportion of Tesla stock and Tesla stock is worth Billions. If
you want to make a coherent point about that it's about how the value of
assets have sky rocketed whilst the value of incomes have stayed flat.

Let me give you a concrete example:

Jeff Bezos runs Amazon, the second most valuable publicly traded company in
the world. Jeff Bezos is worth $164.7 billion and according to Forbes is the
richest man on earth.

Tim Cook runs Apple, the most valuable traded company in the world. Tim Cook
is worth $750m.

The difference between these two people is that one of them had equity in the
company from the start, and the other is paid a salary. They are both leaders.

