Can anyone comment on the divorce situation? The seemingly huge requests by soon-to-be ex-wife? I mean, CA community property and all, but nonetheless, any insights/opinions? (for those of us not up on the gossip)
"The irony of this whole thing is that I don't want hundreds of millions of dollars. I think my ex-husband is brilliant and works like a demon and deserves his success and his wealth. But I also think -- after eight years of marriage and six kids (five surviving) -- that I am entitled to a fair settlement..." http://moschus.livejournal.com/140502.html
She's probably asking for somewhere between 5 and 10% of their combined assets, near as I can tell. I think the bigger issue in the divorce is one of pride, in that Elon doesn't want to give up any shares in the companies he's built... it's more than just money to him.
/back to work
[1] Which is over forty times the lifetime earnings of the average American simply for marrying well.
That's one reason that legally, money made while married is assumed to be evenly split, absent a separate agreement. I don't have any particular insight into his situation, but if, say, my parents had gotten divorced when I was a kid, I would've considered it fair if they split the money evenly, even though my dad officially made all of it.
Plus, if you put it the other way, he's keeping 90-95% of their shared wealth, over a billion dollars, and yet is unhappy with that, because he wants more? It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with control over his companies, either; the amount of stock she's asking for wouldn't affect controlling stakes at all. Seems like it's purely the money: either it's just greed (he has a ton, but wants even more), or some variety of spite (he doesn't care about the money, but doesn't want his ex-wife to get it).
You might be able to make that argument if he hadn't already founded a company and sold it for over $300M before he married her. Paypal itself had already been founded and was well under way before they married. It's disingenuous at best to ascribe any of his success to her.
That's one reason that legally, money made while married is assumed to be evenly split, absent a separate agreement. I don't have any particular insight into his situation, but if, say, my parents had gotten divorced when I was a kid, I would've considered it fair if they split the money evenly, even though my dad officially made all of it.
That is a holdover from when women didn't work, which is why it makes sense with respect to your parents.
Plus, if you put it the other way, he's keeping 90-95% of their shared wealth, over a billion dollars, and yet is unhappy with that, because he wants more? It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with control over his companies, either; the amount of stock she's asking for wouldn't affect controlling stakes at all. Seems like it's purely the money: either it's just greed (he has a ton, but wants even more), or some variety of spite (he doesn't care about the money, but doesn't want his ex-wife to get it).
He's the one that worked for the money. What was her contribution, sex and moral support? That's the most expensive hooker in history. Seems that the best bet for successful men is to refuse to marry. Even if the wife signs a pre-nup, they can still keep the man in court for years to force a settlement.
The real issue here is the duplicity of the womens lib movement. It's fair, equal, and all that jazz until it hurts women financially. Some time ago, a girl asked me to go to dinner with her, and while we were there, she spent a great deal of time telling me all about her political views, especially about women's rights. Of course, when the bill comes, she pushes it over to me. We're equal, women deserve everything the same as men, etc., until the bill comes, then it's "you should buy me dinner because I'm a pretty girl and you're supposed to." I'd have bought dinner anyway, but don't lecture me if it's all just bullshit. Same situation here.
And yes, I do think moral support plus raising five of your children is sufficient support to deserve half the money you made in that period. If he thought otherwise, he shouldn't have signed a contract saying so. Since he did, the only honorable thing to do is to honor his obligations, not the current pathetic show he's making of trying to claw his way out of them after the fact.
She is the mother of his five children.
In fact, beyond a certain point I'd suggest that having lots of money is probably a negative influence in a child's life.
Most people have no ideology. Instead, they have a "retirement plan", so to speak. People oppose taxes when they're wealthy, they are for social welfare when they're poor, they oppose government intervention when that means their looting will cease to be profitable, they are for government intervention when they need a bailout. "Liberal" women are all for immigration when the ones losing jobs are male engineers, but they strongly oppose immigration when the immigrants are superior specimens of the female gender from the former Soviet block (they know they can't compete in the dating market with foreign "talent").
If your friend asked you to go have dinner with her, she has to pay at least 50%. Her parasitic behavior only shows that she has no respect for you whatsoever. If you have some self-respect, I hope you mind-fucked her until she felt guilty for pushing the bill to you. Bonus points if you made her cry in public.
Western society at large believes that domestic life plays a very significant role in the process of creating wealth which is why most jurisdictions award an equal split of property at the time of divorce.
In this particular case they have five sons together and it seems like they met before most of Mr. Musk's ventures were started. There is a lot more effort to a decade or more of supporting a fledging entrepreneur and raising five sons than just marrying well.
I guess I make the assumption that rich people are rational, or maybe they are rich because they are not (always) rational when it comes to money?
I like to think that Elon Musk is not in it for the money, and it seems like so from his actions. He seem to take money from one success story so that he can invest in his dream goals of making the world a better place. Money is just a by product of his actions.
On the other hand, reading some of his wife blog post gives me the impression that she seems like an OK person and not generally spiteful or vindictive.
Utterly confused and scared of getting married.
You can't control people. You can't even control your spouse. That's just how things are, and you have to let them go. You can't go on scared of doing things; anything could happen at any time, but we can't close ourselves off from it.
None of us know the personal details of their relationship. Maybe one side or the other has some good cause for this. Maybe it's mutual and there's just some dispute about the split of assets; that can happen, disputes are pretty normal, and when you have tons of money and are paying for super-high-priced lawyers, things can definitely drag out.
Don't be scared by this stuff. Just do your best and keep on living. That's all the control anyone gets in this life.
That's exactly what Elon Musk tried. Of course, after the pre-nup you have to sign a post-nup confirming the pre-nup, and that's how this whole mess started.
I would understand if one party seems to be unfairly screwing over the other person and not giving them enough money. They are both independently wealthy and have very successful career.
Anyways, I am sure I have much to learn about human relationship and marriage life. It just seems very sad and the only people who are benefitting from this ugly situation are the lawyers, who are going to milk this case for as long as they can for as much as they can.
> Utterly confused and scared of getting married.
As we discussed around here (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1405512) her blogging seems to stink of narcissism and entitlement.
By 2000, Musk had already helped found and sell Zip2; Paypal had already been founded and in just 2 years would grow to the point Ebay would buy it for 1.5 billion; immediately on selling, 1/3rd of the way through the marriage, Musk founds SpaceX; halfway through the marriage, he founds Tesla and a bit after that SolarCity.
(I too have little sympathy, but rather for someone who married a millionaire, signing a prenup (which no one has demonstrated to be unfair or stingy), and now expects to break it when the stakes have gone way up.)