<Anchor> This is a
friendly economic time. Today (2nd), I will be with reporter Kim Hye-min. Tesla stock soars these days, so Elon Musk is the richest man in the world?
<Reporter>
The stock price of Tesla, an American electric vehicle maker, has been on the rise recently as it crossed the $1,000 mark. That's why I even got the nickname 'Cheonsla'.
The stock price jumped largely due to the announcement that car rental company Hertz would purchase 100,000 Tesla's entry-level sedans.
Elon Musk owns 23% of Tesla. As Tesla stock rises, so does Musk's fortune.
Recently, Musk's net worth is $32 billion, which is known to have exceeded 353 trillion won in Korean money.
US media reported that Musk was "the first person on the planet to reach a net worth of $300 billion" and that Musk's fortune exceeds the annual GDPs of Finland, Chile and Vietnam.
<Anchor>
A country has more wealth than its annual GDP. I really don't feel it. However, they said that they had a bit of an argument over donating this Musk.
<Reporter>
Yes. In fact, the fact that the wealth of the world's richest person has increased doesn't even make sense to ordinary people. Only more discomfort.
Nevertheless, I explained Musk's fortune earlier because of the many controversies surrounding his property.
David Beasley, Secretary General of the World Food Program (WFP) recently interviewed CNN in the United States. Here, they asked for donations from the world's richest man Musk and the second richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
He said, "It takes $6 billion to save 42 million people," which is 2% of Musk's $6 billion fortune.
Musk, who saw the report, then rebutted it. "If I can explain exactly how the World Food Program can solve the world hunger problem with $6 billion, I will sell Tesla stock and donate right away," he said.
He also argued that "the public should know how the donations are being used by making the accounts public."
<Anchor> The
management of the fund is a bit inconsistent considering that they even talked about making the accounting public. I think you even pointed this out, but President Beasley immediately counterattacked?
<Reporter>
President Beasley also counterattacked Musk's sarcasm. "I never said $6 billion would solve global hunger," he said.
"We have a transparent accounting disclosure system," he said.
However, there is some truth to what President Beasley said.The net worth of the richest Americans has doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Musk and Bezos pay no personal income tax at all, and Amazon is known to pay no corporate tax either.
On the other hand, Afghanistan and Ethiopia are in desperate need of support as adverse events such as climate change, COVID-19, and war overlap at once.
<Anchor>
So, this can save a lot of lives if the rich donate just a little bit of what they have. I think I said something like this, but sometimes I think that the reaction was a little off-putting to me. That's why in the US, we talked about taxes earlier, but there is talk of introducing a wealth tax.
<Reporter> To
explain what a wealth tax is, right now in the United States, stocks or bonds are not taxed.
So, even if the value of the asset has risen, if you do not sell it, it is not subject to taxation.
When introduced, it is known that about 700 people are subject to taxation. In particular, 10 super-rich people such as Musk, Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg have to pay more than $270 billion in tax alone. This is 324 trillion won in Korean money.
So, whether this wealth tax will be introduced was a big concern in the United States, but this 'wealth tax' taxation proposal was omitted from the budget announced by the US government on the 28th of last month in local time. Instead, only high-income earners over $10 million were added to the tax rate.
However, this discussion gave strength to the argument that the rich should be more active in giving and paying taxes even in the United States, where the donation culture is familiar.