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Tesla Chairman Elon Musk and Indian American billionaire Vinod Khosla have been engaging in heated arguments on X lately and recently, they got into another ugly war of words over the employment rate in Argentina.

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“Argentina's unemployment rate soars to 52% under Mileis dictatorial austerity program. Same will happen under @realDonaldTrump as he slashes spending. His tariffs will simultaneously increase inflation,” wrote Khosla on X, as he shared a link to a Financial Times article which stated that the poverty rate of the country stood at 52 per cent.

Responding to this post, Musk wrote, “You are dumb”, as he understood that the poverty data was referring to unemployment data.

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According to the report published by The Financial Times, the poverty rate in Argentina increased by nearly 53 per cent under libertarian President Javier Milei after there was a fall in his popularity.

Also Read: Elon Musk vows to throw BBQ party on Indian-American billionaire Vinod Khosla's 'off-limits' California beach

This has been the worst rate recorded in two decades and it reflected that 3.4 million Argentines have been facing poverty this year.

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The claims of Khosla were also scrutinised by community notes, which stated, “The unemployment rate in Argentina fell to 7.6% in the second quarter of 2024, down from 7.7% in the previous period and below estimates of 7.9%.”

Musk claimed that Khosla was misinformed even though only data from last year was provided by community notes.

'Dumb' vs ‘Macho brain': War of words escalate

The war of words escalated when Musk referenced another commenter Adam Lowisz who said that Khosla's claim of a 52 per cent unemployment rate is 'absurd'.

In reply, Musk said, “Seriously” as he waited for a response from Khosla.

In reply, Khosla said, “Poverty is gross underemployment. Too nuanced for macho brains to understand. My nuance vs. your outright posting of false pics? I get a community comment and yours didn’t. I thought you were above this kind of bias at X.”

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His reply was countered by Musk's supporter who said, “False pics also known as SATIRE,” after which Musk himself wrote, “Vinod is just actually not smart.” Khosla reacted, “Plenty of proof of that.”

(With inputs from agencies)