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not2b | on: Trudeau government bans TikTok from operating in Canada
That can be a threat, but a billionaire American or South African with similar power and motivation is also a threat.
boringg | parent | next
Not even comparable.
BurningFrog | parent | next
China's motivation, as a geopolitical adversary to the US, is to tilt the geopolitical power balance in its favor.

Our local billionaires goals are not in the same category.

filleduchaos | root | parent
It's extremely telling that so many Americans in this thread are comfortably talking about "our local" companies and adversaries to the US, when the article is about a ban in...Canada.
mc32 | parent | next
And also the guy who bought a bankrupt radio network, right? Or is that one okay?
ahartmetz | root | parent
What about that African weirdo who bought the #1 political announcements channel on the internet? /s
imgabe | parent
A billionaire American lives in America and generally benefits if America benefits. A foreign country is not aligned to America’s interests and may be outright hostile to them.
MPSFounder | root | parent | next
This right here is incredibly stupid. One of the stupidest takes and a rampid and dangerous misconception among mostly young men I see as of late. Elon avoids taxes not because he likes this country, but because he benefits from it. Anything that maximizes his personal wealth could very well be hostile to the well being of the country. You should see how he treated his own children. Incredibly naive. Many rich men end up giving back to the communities that made them (Gates and others for instance). Elon, a child of parents that cashed in on apartheid, is certainly an exception.
imgabe | root | parent | next
Elon has literally paid billions of dollars in taxes.

Yes, he "avoids" taxes by using every legal strategy available to him, as does every single person who pays taxes. This is called "paying the correct amount of taxes you legally owe".

> Anything that maximizes his personal wealth could very well be hostile to the well being of the country.

Let's look at the things that have maximized his personal wealth:

Paypal - made online payments popular and safe. Enabled millions of people to start online business.

Tesla - made electric cars popular. Reduced C02 emissions. Gave thousands of Americans good jobs. Made many employees and investors rich.

SpaceX - re-ignited space exploration. pioneered re-usable rockets. Dramatically reduced the cost of launching satellites.

Starlink - brought Internet access to rural areas.

Please tell me, which of these personal wealth maximizing activities has been hostile to the US?

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octacat | root | parent
Many rick men are giving back for the soft power (i.e. the politics play). Or indirectly investing into their new ventures (like giving money to buy vaccines and also making the vaccines by their other company). Plus some interesting tax write-offs.

So, thanks for the charity, but I would rather prefer them to pay that as taxes.

Teever | root | parent | next
This is a post about Canada.
sabbaticaldev | root | parent
Canada is America, literally but also figuratively
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