Bernie Sanders has told Tesla CEO Elon Musk to focus on a progressive tax system and to concentrate on Earth-based issues as opposed to space exploration.
According to The New York Post, the Vermont Senator and the SpaceX founder came to blows over social media last week, after Sanders targeted the billionaire (who recently became the world's wealthiest man for a brief period) over his vast fortune.
In a tweet made on Thursday, March 18, Sanders wrote: "When we talk about rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, we must include low-income and affordable housing.
"Today, 500,000 Americans are homeless, and 18 million spend 50% of their incomes on shelter. We can create millions of jobs building the housing we desperately need."
He added: "We are in a moment in American history where two guys - Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos - own more wealth than the bottom 40% of people in this country. That level of greed and inequality is not only immoral. It is unsustainable."
Musk appeared to take umbrage over Sanders' comments and responded with a tweet of his own. On March 21, he shared a link to an article from the website Clean Technica which criticized Sanders for disparaging him, and captioned it:
"I am accumulating resources to help make life multi-planetary & extend the light of consciousness to the stars."
However, Musk's response did little to satisfy Sanders, who last week introduced a proposal last week to increase corporate taxes on companies that pay top executives at least 50 times more than their median worker’s pay.
Sanders promptly tweeted back: "Space travel is an exciting idea, but right now we need to focus on Earth and create a progressive tax system so that children don’t go hungry, people are not homeless and all Americans have healthcare.
"The level of inequality in America is obscene and a threat to our democracy."
However, Musk previously offered to donate a sum of his estate to charity after briefly overtaking Bezos as the world's richest man.
In a tweet made on January 8, Musk wrote: "Btw, critical feedback is always super appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (way harder than it seems) [sic]"
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