U.S. Senators comment on Elon Musk $1 trillion pay package

Elon Musk’s lavish compensation package from Tesla has prompted some senators to warn about a new Gilded Age dawning on the U.S. Others accepted the will of shareholders as capitalism operating as intended. Yet it raised eyebrows all around the U.S. Senate.

On Thursday, Musk secured a $1 trillion pay package from Tesla shareholders. It’s a staggering sum that would mint him as the world’s first trillionaire once he achieves several corporate benchmarks in the next 10 years.

The historic moment came in the middle of another. The compensation package was presented during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which has left some families anxious about receiving their next paycheck and unnerved others about losing access to food stamp benefits.

Among plenty of Democratic senators, it stirred anger about a divide that risks cementing itself in American life. For the ultra-rich, winner-take-all capitalism has been a stupendous success that created new fortunes, particularly in the tech sector. Much of it isn’t taxed either, since they earn these chief executives’ wealth through stocks and dividends taxed at lower rates.

“People compare today to the excesses of the roaring ’20s, and Elon proves that is a gross understatement,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told Quartz. “It’s time to start talking about Marie Antoinette. All the wealth flows to the top, and peasants are left with crumbs. That’s the world Elon Musk inhabits.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

That sentiment was echoed by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who once chaired the Senate Finance Committee when Democrats controlled the chamber under the Biden administration. For him, it demonstrated “the extraordinary, astounding sums” that are being minted at the upper rungs of American society while others are struggling to afford basic essentials.

“Forty-two million people are going hungry, and we’ve got a president who’s practically wrestling with them over the issue of getting enough meat and bread and essentials to survive,” Wyden said. “We better make some changes.”

Wyden said 23 Democratic senators had signed onto his bill for a so-called billionaire income tax, the most support it’s enjoyed among rank-and-file Democrats. The legislation would enact a tax on the sizable gains on tradable assets like stocks once they are sold by very rich Americans. Democrats, though, weren’t able to cobble enough support for the idea when they controlled Congress and the White House in the first two years of the Biden presidency.