Time magazine crowned Elon Musk the Person of the Year for 2021. Time’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal explained the decision to pick the richest man on Earth, saying he was emblematic of 2021 and the year’s most influential person.
“For creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations, Elon Musk is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year,” Felsenthal added.
Some people were outraged by the choice, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, who took to Twitter that same day to weigh in on the billionaire wealth debate: “Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.”
Musk was having none of it and responded by telling her to “stop projecting” and calling her “Senator Karen.”
“You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason.”
In yet another follow up Musk wrote: “Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen.”
Earlier in the year Elon Musk made news when he moved Tesla’s headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas.
Tesla is not the first company to move to Texas. In 2020, tech powerhouse Oracle announced it was moving from Silicon Valley to Austin.
California has stronger labour laws, and higher living costs and taxes than other states, while Texas is known for cheaper labour and less stringent regulation.
Mr. Musk moved his home to Texas from California at the end of last year to focus on Tesla’s new car manufacturing plant there. His SpaceX rocket company has a launch site in the southern tip of Texas.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, is projected to pay more than $8.2 billion in taxes on stock he sold in 2021, Forbes estimates. Because he sold nearly $13 billion in stocks through December 13 of this year. Musk will pay the largest tax bill in US history.