Today Elon Musk, already the world’s richest person, became its first trillionaire as the result of a record-setting initial public offering from SpaceX, his rocket and artificial intelligence company. As the company ended the day valued at more than $2 trillion, Musk’s wealth jumped to $1.2 trillion.
Good for him. Bravo!
The abuse being hurled his way for earning money commensurate with his contributions to civilization and the United States particularly is unusually foolish and unethical even for the political and ideological Left, from whence it is coming. Musk is a trillionaire now because he is an innovator, he is gutsy, he spends his money wisely, he takes big risks less wealthy people will not, and he has provided jobs aplenty in new industries. He is almost certain to accomplish much more going forward; it’s exciting to speculate. What’s not to like?
Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City wrote on X (because he’s a Communist and has never built a business in his life), “Reason #1,000,000,000,000 why we should tax the rich.” Would somebody please tell the Mayor that we do tax the rich? It is estimated that Musk has paid about 11 billion dollars in state and federals taxes over the years, and even more internationally. Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on social media that the average U.S. household would have to work more than 11 million years to attain Musk’s level of wealth. That is the epitome of “missing the point.” I read even dumber complaints about Musk on my Facebook feed.
Maybe something is wrong with me: never in my life did what someone else made, possessed or have in the bank make me envious of him or her, resentful, or feel anything at all, frankly. Maybe it is because I figured out early in life that someone making more money than me doesn’t cause me to make less unless we are both line items in a limited budget.
Musk deserves more than a trillion dollars: he deserves a heroic statue next to Miss Liberty, because his purchase of Twitter, something only he could do because he had money to burn, rescued free speech in the U.S. and open political discourse from censorship by the totalitarian Left.
Those who attack Musk because he has made a great fortune doing great things don’t comprehend liberty, capitalism, genius, risk-taking, innovation, problem-solving, oh, lots of wonderful things. And they vote for barely employed oyster-seekers who have Nazi symbols on their chests and abuse women.
Ethics Alarms 
I have female body parts tattooed on my chest and I abuse Nazis. The left would never vote for me…
The fools like Warren who criticize him are economic illiterates who seem to think Elon is like some dragon sitting on a pile of gold in his cave. His wealth is in businesses employing tens of thousands of people and producing products and services that benefit millions. As you say, he still pays billions in taxes. His SpaceX IPO made millionaires of thousands of average employees who had been given shares. He has and will do more for the country, citizens, and the world than a million less-than-useless Mamdanis, Warrens, Sanders’, Newsoms, etc. leeches ever will.
No one is starving or homeless because of Elon Musk’s wealth.
Most food and shelter lack in this world is probably directly linked to some governing system or governmental policy. Most food and shelter lack in a free society that rewards hard work, good choices and talent is directly linked to not working, bad choices and lack of skill.
So, even though Elon Musk is subject to laws, shareholders, the market, and endless government regulations, he’s a threat to democracy because he has so much money.
Yet, the left wants a government with nearly unlimited power to tax 70% of your income and take away every free speech protection they don’t like.
I suspect the argument against Musk is envy for many people, not principle.
It isn’t just envy. It is hatred because he refuses to be controlled. When the EU fined him for insufficient censorship and for refusing to silence the critics of the EU elites, he moved the data centers to remove the control. It was completely within the rules, but the EU ‘experts’ told their rulers that it would take him a year to do that. He did it in a few months.
Makes sense. I think that’s part of the reason for hatred of Trump. People who don’t bow down to the PC mob and have a lot of financial success seem to enrage them like no one else.
Liberal arts degree holders, lefties, journalists, lawyers and political science majors despise Musk and his fellows because they can do math, and they’re really good at it. The Bernies Sanders and Liz Warrens and Hillary Clintons of the world can’t do math and really, really hate the people who can because they can go into business and finance and make gobs of money and live high off the hog. It’s a weird combination of greed and envy. They want lots of money, but they don’t know how to make it. So, they’re pissed at the people who can. (By the way, this is analogous to Jew hate.)
You are close. They believe that they have a right to be in charge because they have the right parents, they have the right ideals, or they are in the right group. They feel like they are aristocrats and have the right to rule over the rest of us. Musk didn’t get their permission to be rich and powerful. He isn’t a member of the club. Bill Gates is a member, so they don’t criticize him. He plays along and obeys them, like good little billionaire. It is the same reason they freak out about Trump. He didn’t get their permission to be President like the others did.
He didn’t even get their permission to make something of himself. And as I recall, he was a Democrat until he decided to make a run for the presidency. He crossed a line. He was supposed to give money to politicians. He was not supposed to BE a politician and play in their sandbox. It’s simply not true that anyone can grow up to be president.
If you ever want to see a very broad sea of mediocrity masquerading as excellence, look at the American university as a whole. College is supposed to be a rigorous subject-based study along with a very serious philosophical discussion about truth and society. It’s not supposed to be grievance studies or a hive mind.
The fact people are graduating coming out as worse human beings than they were before they went in damning. A short quick hand to see how mediocre an academic is (not always, but generally) is to see if they hate Musk. If they do, chances are they teach nonsense or they teach an introductory course and think that qualifies them for grand ideas about society.
It’s practically impossible to fail out of Harvard. In recent years, 63% of grades handed out at Harvard were A’s. It’s like Lake Wobegon out there.
The US higher education system is such a joke. Outside of very technical or STEM studies, there is little to no value.