How is it possible to be worth a trillion?

Thank you for your structured intellectual counter argument.

Honestly the quality of debate on MN just gets lower and lower.

Imagine the insanity of being on a planet run by Musk and techbros, where you'd actually be dependent on them for the very air you breathe. 😱

I do think that charting the rise and fall of Elon Musk in public opinion is really interesting. People seem to forget that pre the binfire that was twitter that he was much better thought of generally. I wonder if there’s a certain “sunk cost fallacy” to his actions. So if he can save the government money, build moonbases, put a million people on mars then he’ll be vindicated in the court of public opinion.

If nothing else he’s an excellent teaching example of why ketamine is generally a bad idea.

He, like Bill Gates, has pledged to give half of it away to charity. He gave half a billion away a couple of years ago. Now, the issue is, do you agree with what he is giving away and how. Most of it is to his own foundation supporting tech schools and universities, not alleviating hunger.... but he is not keeping piles of notes in his basement.

He is however, a horrible human being, and I think he should stay in his lane, and not interfere in world politics or spout his distasteful views all over the internet.

The thing is, those portraying him as just a brilliant and motivated individual who happened to become highly successful within the global capitalist system, and isn't responsible for the shortcomings of that system or for supporting the people failed by it, MAY have a point - IF Musk himself had chosen to limit his own horizons to that.

He could have just started his companies, brought them to success, paid some tax and got on with his life within a complex mixed economy society in which some people get rich, some get by and some need some help to get by. He'd still be outstandingly rich, probably some people would resent him but most wouldn't care that much.

But he didn't. That wasn't enough for him. He had to get right into the guts of how that society is run and make sure that not only could he get rich, he could also make sure lots of other people got poor. And he had to turn his social media platform into a mouthpiece for racist and far right politics dedicated to the same end.

It's not being the world's richest man that makes him a cunt. It's being the world's richest man feeling compelled to use that wealth and influence to make life harder for others.

Nope - that's just your own pre existing dislike of Musk interpreting that video in a way that simply reinforces your existing bias. You are seeing, hearing and interpreting things in a way that you want to rather than objectively.

Personally I would prefer to form my opinions on interpreting the evidence objectively. Although I recognise that for some that it is intellectually less challenging to base it purely on interpreting arm gestures.

@1dayatatime - we all saw the video of Musk doing it, your picture of people just waving are pointless.

Are you saying that feeding 42 million people for a year is pointless?

Did you read the article about how his cuts damaged global health

Would feeding 42 million people for a year have ended world hunger? There wouldn't have been even more hungry people the next year?

@Whatafustercluck

You see an arm in the air does not make you a Nazi. What does make you a Nazi is:
Hating Capitalism
In favour of nationalisation
Militarism
Intolerance to opposing views
Dividing society by racial group (as opposed to left wing ideology of dividing society by class).

Imagine being a trillionaire and you’re still so unhappy that you spend your time throwing money at far right groups, posting hateful content on the internet like a troll and kissing trumps shoes.

@Whatafustercluck

And also this

@Whatafustercluck

And this

The Doge cuts have been devastating

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/the-human-cost-one-year-after-the-us-took-a-chainsaw-to-global-health/

But lets look a the other shit he's caused. Doge cancelled the Panamanian/Colombian Screwworm barrier.

Now the parasite (Screwworm not Musk) has reached America and is damaging farming up there

www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2026/06/11/fda-approves-emergency-screwworm-treatment-as-cases-rise-to-7-in-texas-new-mexico/

The cancellation was done by Doge when he was in charge of it. More idiocy by Musk

From the Forbes article

"The return of screwworm comes after the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, launched by the Trump administration, last year cut funding for a project dedicated to monitoring and containing New World screwworm in Central America.

The funding was axed days before the U.S. ended a temporary suspension of cattle imports from Mexico, meaning livestock was allowed to cross the border without any of the monitoring previously funded by the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID)."

@Whatafustercluck

Well there is this:

I’d agree, I think that’s true over much of the AI / chips sector. Super high valuations/ investment but no real way to make a profit (currently) to justify. It’s like the investors all have FOMO in case it turns out to be a unicorn.

How interesting that must of happened in a vacuum with no other factors. I do hope at some point your equally as effusive condemning our own and other western governments who’ve also slashed aid budgets. Perhaps waiting for a study and a headline?

I don’t disagree that these preventable deaths are awful. I am quite honestly devastated at the way the world is going. I don’t entirely understand why though when you have other countries fuelling a humanitarian crisis via funding and weapons then the blame is all directed at the cuts? Surely we should be looking at the roots of an issue.

Well, there's this.

Killed by cuts to USAID. Cuts made by Musk's Doge department.

That there are always more people suffering isn't a reason not to help the ones you can! What kind of bullshit is that?

In 2021, he challenged the UN world food programme to show him a way to end world hunger - and they told him a step by step plan costing £6.6 billion that would have fed 42 million people for a year. 42 million. He didn't donate any money to them.

We don't need a new planet, we need to look after this one.

Are those children being killed by cuts or are they being killed because conflicts are creating humanitarian crises. For example do the two factions who are battling it out in Sudan bear no responsibility? They have killed hundreds of thousands of people including tens of thousands of civilians, normalised horrendous sexual violence as a weapon of war, displaced millions of people from their homes and caused extreme famine about 20% of children are dangerously malnourished. It’s not just one country either more of the world is suffering from conflict than at any other point since ww2.

Demands for aid are ever increasing, the return for those “soft” diplomacy dollars is ever diminishing, China has invested heavily through the BRI and it shows, not so hot on aid though.

Do you have any actual evidence that he is a Nazi? Or is as I suspect this is a term that you throw around at anyone that you dislike or disagree with you etc etc. it's a bit pathetic really.

Why dont you add fascist, homophobic and racist to complete the bollocks buzz word bingo?

It's not just the cooling, it's maintenance, and the radiation will damage chips too. Unless they are hardened. But that would involve some kind of shielding which will add even more weight to the launches.

I very much doubt the valuation is justified.