Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a plan that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, two days after New Yorkers elected a tax-the-rich candidate as their next mayor.

周四，也就是纽约市民选举一位主张向富人征税的候选人担任市长两天后，特斯拉股东通过了一项可能使埃隆·马斯克成为全球首位万亿富翁的方案。

These discrete moments offered strikingly different lessons about America and who deserves how much of its wealth.

这两件事看似毫不相关，却展现了关于美国社会及其财富分配问题的鲜明对照。

At Tesla, based in the Austin, Texas, area, shareholders have largely bought into a winner-takes-all version of capitalism, agreeing by a wide margin to give Mr. Musk shares worth almost a trillion dollars if the company under his management achieves ambitious financial and operational goals over the next decade.

在总部位于得克萨斯州奥斯汀地区的特斯拉，股东们基本信奉“赢家通吃”的资本主义模式，他们以压倒性票数达成一致：如果马斯克在未来十年内能带领公司实现雄心勃勃的财务和运营目标，就给予他价值近1万亿美元的股份。

But halfway across the country, in the home to Wall Street, Zohran Mamdani’s victory served as a reminder of the frustrations many Americans have with an economic system that has left them struggling to afford basics like food, housing and child care.

而在美国另一端的华尔街所在地，佐兰·马姆达尼的当选折射出许多美国人对经济体制的不满——这个体系让他们为食品、住房和育儿等基本开支疲于奔命。

These are vastly different arenas, to be sure. But that split-screen reality speaks to a larger divide in American business and politics. On one side are billionaires like Mr. Musk and their many supporters, including President Trump, who see the financial success of a small group of executives as something to be celebrated and emulated.

这两件事当然属于截然不同的领域，但这种并存的现实反映了美国商业和政治中更深层的分裂。一边是像马斯克这样的亿万富翁以及他们的众多支持者，包括特朗普总统，他们认为一小部分高管的经济成功值得颂扬和效仿。

On the other are progressives like Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, who are calling for something more akin to the social welfare systems of Western Europe. Mr. Mamdani campaigned on using higher taxes on businesses and the wealthy to pay for universal child care and free buses — promises that helped him win a resounding victory against two more conservative candidates.

另一方则是马姆达尼这样的进步派民主社会主义者，他们呼吁建立更接近西欧模式的社会福利体系。马姆达尼在竞选中主张通过对企业和富人增税来实现全民育儿保障和免费公交——这些承诺帮助他以压倒性优势击败了两位立场更为保守的候选人。

Much like an earlier pay plan that Tesla shareholders approved in 2018, this 12-step package asks Mr. Musk, the company’s chief executive, to vastly expand Tesla’s stock market valuation — to $8.5 trillion from around $1.4 trillion — while hitting a variety of other goals. Those include selling one million robots with humanlike qualities and 10 million paid subscriptions to the company’s self-driving software.

与特斯拉股东在2018年批准的那份薪酬方案类似，这项包含12个阶段的计划要求担任首席执行官的马斯克大幅提高特斯拉的市值——从约1.4万亿美元提高到8.5万亿美元——同时完成其他一系列目标，包括出售100万台人形机器人，以及实现1000万份自动驾驶软件的付费订阅。

“What we’re about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla, but a whole new book,” Mr. Musk said, after thanking shareholders for their support.

“我们即将开启的不只是特斯拉未来的新篇章，而是一个全新的时代，”马斯克在感谢股东支持后说道。

Tesla’s stock price fell modestly in after hours trading.

特斯拉的股价在盘后交易中小幅下跌。

Tesla’s directors and some investors, including the board that oversees Florida’s public pension fund, hailed the $1 trillion pay plan as a way to motivate Mr. Musk, who is already the world’s wealthiest person, to build futuristic products like cars that can drive themselves.

特斯拉董事及部分投资者——包括监管佛罗里达州公共养老基金的董事会——称赞这项价值万亿美元的薪酬方案，认为它将激励已经身为全球首富的马斯克打造自动驾驶汽车等未来产品。

“Those who claim the plan is ‘too large’ ignore the scale of ambition that has historically defined Tesla’s trajectory,” the Florida State Board of Administration said in a securities filing describing why it voted for Mr. Musk’s pay plan. “A company that went from near bankruptcy to global leadership in E.V.s and clean energy under similar frameworks has earned the right to use incentive models that reward moonshot performance.”

佛罗里达州行政委员会在一份阐述其为何投票支持马斯克薪酬计划的证券备案文件中表示：“那些质疑‘薪酬过高’的人忽视了特斯拉的雄心之大，而这种雄心一直定义着特斯拉的发展轨迹。一个在类似激励框架下从濒临破产发展到在电动车和清洁能源领域领先全球的公司，完全有资格使用奖励‘登月级成果’的激励模式。”

纽约市候任市长佐兰·马姆达尼的竞选主张是通过提高企业和富人的税收来为全民托育和免费公交提供资金。

The plan is structured in such a way that if Mr. Musk makes money, the company’s investors do, too — a point that the fund manager Cathie Wood made this week on the social media platform X.

该薪酬方案的设计确保马斯克获利时公司投资者也能受益——基金经理凯西·伍德本周在社交媒体平台X上强调了这一点。

“I do not understand why investors are voting against Elon’s pay package when they and their clients would benefit enormously if he and his incredible team meet such high goals,” Ms. Wood, who is the chief executive of Ark Invest, wrote.

身为方舟投资公司首席执行官的伍德写道：“我不明白投资者为何要投票反对埃隆的薪酬方案，若他与其卓越团队实现这些宏伟目标，投资者及其客户都将获得巨大回报。”

But Mr. Musk’s detractors, including officials who oversee public pension funds in New York and California, vigorously opposed the plan, saying it would concentrate too much wealth and corporate power in the hands of one person.

但马斯克的反对者，包括纽约和加州公共养老金基金的管理官员，强烈反对这项计划，称它会让过多的财富和公司权力集中在一个人手中。

“This is not pay for performance. It is pay for unchecked power,” Thomas DiNapoli, the New York State comptroller, told reporters and investors on a recent conference call.

纽约州审计长托马斯·迪纳波利在最新一次与记者和投资者的电话会议上表示：“这不是绩效薪酬，这是无约束权力得到的报酬。”

Even Pope Leo XIV weighed in, saying in an interview with Crux, a Catholic news website, that Mr. Musk’s compensation was a symptom of the growing disparity between working people and the wealthy. The median Tesla worker earned around $57,000 in 2024, according to a company securities filing.

甚至教宗良十四世也发表了看法，他在接受天主教新闻网站Crux采访时表示，马斯克的薪酬方案折射出工薪阶层与富豪群体日益扩大的鸿沟。根据公司的一份证券申报文件，2024年特斯拉员工的薪酬中位数约为5.7万美元。

Mr. Musk addressed some of those concerns obliquely, saying the company’s humanoid robot, Optimus, was the singular solution for addressing poverty. The robot remains under development.

马斯克间接回应了部分质疑，声称公司研发的人形机器人Optimus是消除贫困的唯一解决方案。目前该机器人仍处于开发阶段。

“People often talk about eliminating poverty, giving everyone amazing medical care. Well, there’s actually only one way to do that, and that’s with the Optimus robot,” Mr. Musk said. “You start getting into like, some pretty wild sci-fi sort of scenarios.”

“人们常说要消除贫困、让所有人享有优质医疗服务。但实际上只有一种方法能做到，那就是Optimus机器人，”马斯克说。“这即将带我们进入超乎想象的科学幻境。”

His pay plan had been expected to pass. Roughly half a dozen similar — albeit much smaller — executive stock packages have been put to a shareholder vote at publicly traded U.S. companies in the past three years, according to the proxy solicitation firm Georgeson. All but one of them passed.

这项薪酬方案的通过本在预料之中。据代理征求机构乔治森的数据，过去三年美国上市公司提交股东表决的类似高管股权激励方案约有六个（尽管规模小得多），除一个外均获通过。

Mr. Musk was allowed under state law in Texas, Tesla’s corporate residence, to vote his own shares. The executive owns about 15 percent of Tesla’s stock. His control could grow to almost 29 percent if he fulfills the terms of the pay plan, though he might have to sell some stock to pay taxes.

根据特斯拉注册地得克萨斯州法律，马斯克可以用自己持有的股份参与投票。他持有特斯拉约15%的股份。如果他达成薪酬计划的条款，其持股比例最高可增至近29%，不过他可能需要出售部分股票支付税费。

But another of the company’s biggest investors, the manager of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, said it would vote against the pay package.

但公司另一大投资者——挪威主权财富基金运营机构挪威银行投资管理公司明确表示将投反对票。

“While we appreciate the significant value created under Mr. Musk’s visionary role, we are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution and lack of mitigation of key person risk,” the firm said, using a business term for a company’s dependence on one particular person.

该机构表示：“尽管我们认可马斯克在其富有远见的领导角色下所创造的巨大价值，但我们对这份奖励的总体规模、股权稀释效应以及未能缓解关键人员风险措施的缺失感到担忧。”这里的“关键人员风险”指公司过度依赖某一特定人物。

Other opponents said the plan’s terms allowed the Tesla board of directors too much leeway to award Mr. Musk the shares even if he does not achieve the product goals.

其他反对者则表示，该方案条款赋予特斯拉董事会过大自由裁量权，即使未达成产品目标仍可向马斯克授予股份。

Tesla’s board of directors rejected those complaints.

特斯拉董事会驳斥了这些质疑。

The compensation plan “was designed with one overarching purpose: to supercharge Tesla’s next phase of exceptional growth, innovation and value creation,” Robyn Denholm, the chair of the company’s board of directors, said in a letter to shareholders last month. “There are no layups, and Elon only gets additional voting rights if he delivers on bold market capitalization and operational goals.”

董事会主席罗宾·德霍姆上月致信股东称：该薪酬方案的“核心目标只有一个：加速特斯拉迈向新一轮非凡增长、创新与价值创造。没有易达成的指标，埃隆唯有达成远大的市值与运营目标，才能获得更多的投票权。”