It is called equity equivalents, this is where you don’t give away equity but basically still pay as if you are, hence I admit royalties are maybe not the right word but for my it is similar. Unlike other international tech companies like Google or Microsoft in our country that pays equity equivalents, the telecommunications requirements are equity or slice of your business.

I admit it is not royalties, it’s called something else not sure what, word that came to my mind. But basically an equivalent of paying similar money but without giving away equity or ownership.

Funny enough, I do believe our BEE laws in South Africa should be scrapped. According to our news he offered to pay 26% in royalties, like Google does for example in South Africa, but did not agree to give away equity. The BEE laws are basically a way for politically connected ANC members to get a slice of the pie, does not one bit help the majority of people here.

Look Elon is a shit, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. There also needs to be empowerment laws, I say to poor citizens not based on any race laws, even though the majority of extremely poor people are black, coloured indian, mixed…, but not ones that mostly filter to the politically connected like the current BEE laws favour.

Yeah South African here, it’s a Christian book shop franchise here, not sure if they have spread to other countries yet. Primary school the store name was the butt of the joke for a short while

If you want to look at a country that solved their power problem with solar, I heard that is exactly what Vietnam did by incentivising the private generation of power, basically buying extra power from people’s solar. But do your own research, not entirely sure of the whole story

Bullshit, South African here. Yes solar has helped, mostly the affluent who can afford to install their own private home/business solar power.

But The huge problem what caused it was the ANC, which in May lost its majority in the elections for the first time since 1994.

The state run power company, Eskom, had been run into the ground by the ANC due to corruption and incompetence. In 1997 a white paper showed there would not be enough power by 2007. The only two power stations they build, the two largest in the world if I am not incorrect has been the subject of the state capture commission due to corruption.

In 2024 when it became clear they might lose majority, they exempted themselves from a government policy, which affects all medium to large businesses, which mandated they had to procure anything like maintenance or supplies through a BEE (black economic empowerment) partner. The idea is good but has been abused as rent seeking by the politically connected. So now they are exempt and the OEMs can directly work to fix and maintain the power stations.

Funny due to the loadshedding, or rolling blackouts, we did not have enough power stations working, and as far as I know we were one, if not the only country reaching our Paris accords targets.

But solar power is here to stay, heck even I want it on my own place, due to the cost of electricity becoming unaffordable, if you take a 10 year loan on a solar system, the cost savings will pay of the system itself. This has led to the affluent that can afford high tariffs prices from Eskom switch to Solar, saving them money, but they were used to subsidise electricity prices for the poor. So now the poor must pay more for electricity.

The government did finally approve the independent power producers bill, finally allowing people other than government to produce electricity, and solar looks like a solid option, since we have lots of Sun and the falling prices. So government is loosing grip on the generation market, allowing the free market to make changes.

But I will say it has been so nice to have had uninterrupted power when I come home, not needing to throw out my freezer food, having a hot shower, being able to prepare food on a hot stove under lights instead of a braai/BBQ.

The flower in the picture reminds me of a Erythrina lysistemon, whose name in Afrikaans, in my opinion, is very racist, translated would be like n*****tree. Luckily I am hearing from a lot more people, compared to when I grew up, starting to name this beautiful tree a different name, kanniedood, which translates to cannot-die.

I love that we look at language and ask are there hurtful words, even if it was not meant, and trying to improve on it. Sounds similar in the IT industry awhile ago where they tried replacing terms like master and slave with alternatives like primary and secondary.

It is insane what Elon has achieved and what potential he has for the good or bad of humanity. I wonder how the pages of history will be written

Even if he, hypothetically, was the sickest fuck to ever step foot on Epstein’s island, he is an American oligarch that will most likely never see any repercussions, since he has the money, like real money to actually make a difference, and influence politically and celebrity wise. So even the best funded Justice department has an annual budget that this guy can donate at a whim to ensure his freedom. His Starlink is being used by Ukraine during this war, so he even has leverage on an American ally. No he is safe as Rain

Populism is a feature of democracy. It’s just like in life, easy answers, like fast food for example, are always easy to suggest, but in the long term might not be the best. But if you can show your voter base, eating these disgusting vegetables in the long term is going to do everyone good, slight inconvenience, major benefit. So there will always be the power hungry populist that will give easy and popular answers to hard questions, it is the voters duty to determine who has their long term interests at heart and who is able to bribe you with your shortsighted desires to get into power.

I am not going to say which war this was but I have heard veterans tell stories of strapping the enemy soldier to their vehicle and driving slowly across a suspected mined area, usually the poor soul will quickly identify all the hidden explosive zones. Not saying this is what’s happening, just reminded me of the story. Fucking wars

This is like the best advertisement ever for the brand. Like they get the infamy without killing someone, basically became certified cool like the warning sticker on music albums in the 90s

Say what you want but his clear doesn’t give a fuck attitude that what he says in public and denying what he says in public is strong. Never knew someone’s gaslighting game is this strong

Easy, tell him then the shares they want to give him cannot be sold immediately then, like 5 years of holding. But also include a section that says his current holdings must then also be tied to the new shares holding period, since he said he was first in and will be last out, should not be a problem and will be a great motivator.

Time for Elon Musk to create a new vapour-ware like the boring tunnel to stop mass transplantation that will compete with his electric car empire

Well it seems I made wrong assumptions in my initial calculations. But they are using wealth, so yes house valuations and retirements plus investment. But here is the caveat, you have to minus dept. So if you have houses and cars worth let’s make this figure up, $15mil, maybe $1mil in retirement, savings, investment and loose cash you might be worth $16mil to the common people. But if you have let’s say $20mil in dept, then according to wealth valuations a homeless person has more wealth than you. Remember wealth estimates like this does not include income and earning potential

Ok hear me out. I just want to do quick maths. The world population is according to worldometer just over 8,1 billion people. So 81 million people make up the top 1%. So this article says they have now 44,6 trillion dollars. So $44600000000000/81000000 is equal to $550617.28 per person in the one percent. So that means if you have more than $550 000 in wealth, you are a one percenter.

I am curious if the wealth of the top % as a value has grown or outpaced the rate of inflation and population growth added together.

Who is this random chicken, where did plucky go. Also where did Clarke Kent go and oh my god, Superman is here as well

I think a nice compromise would be to have a time delay on the data, so that live data is not readily available, for example 4 hours delay maybe