How is it possible to be worth a trillion?

See, it's such an insane amount of money you aren't even sure how to write this down to take the piss!

No one can really get their head around the amount of money he and other multi billionaires have but we hear about it so often now we are immune to it & people speak about the ultra rich in the same breath as top earners.

None of us really understands this kind of wealth but we try, unsuccessfully usually, to rationalise it.

I just don't get the "he shouldn't be allowed to be this rich" thing.

He's not some African despot who has diverted the entire wealth of his country to his own personal bank account, he hasn't just inherited it, he's created it.

He has created companies that, collectively, are valued at $1tr dollars - what would you say to him "No, Mr Musk you are too good at this investment, funding, backing and generally facilitating business and innovation thing, you have to stop now" 😂

Exactly. That's true of anyone you has a pension fund as well. Not just the rich.

Which he will probably have significantly less than that tomorrow. It's just wooden dollars. He's worth what the company is worth. And what makes that company worth that is people's confidence in him. He doesn't have that money in the bank. Not than it really matters, he has more money than he could ever spend.

What an ignorant and vile comment "he's a waste of skin and dna" 🙄 what an utterly ridiculous thing to say.

Go on, wow us with how many companies you've started, how many 1,000's of people you've given work to and how many innovations you've funded.

How have you changed the world and moved technology forward?

But you won't have the same political power.

If there was a stock market crash, or the shares of his companies crashed on the stock market, this 'trillion' would vanish without even a puff of smoke.
It is not real money.

But that's true of everyone rich (and of a lot of people who aren't even rich). Or did you think Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffet have all theirs in cash under their mattress?

Make that $999,999,999,999.

What if he only had $999,999,999,999,999,999?

Ok. I'm not saying I disagree with you. I'm just trying to stimulate a conversation.

Nothing changes my view that one person having a trillion dollars is an inherently bad thing.

But you are focusing in on one aspect of what he is trying to do. Tesla has driven the electric car revaluation. Space x has driven the availability of internet access beyond rich countries. 50 years ago the idea of sending a satellite into space was seen as self indulgence but it has revolutionarized people's lives (every time you switch on your sat nav for example, worldwide communication and so on) Just because you don't see value in space tourism it doesn't mean there won't be a huge value in it for mankind.

Like I've said before. I don't like the guy and the path he's taken politically and his influence he has on social media. Just being a devil's advocate and recognising that being and asshole and having a positive influence on society aren't mutually exclusive.

I don't actually hate Bezos as a person. He just runs Amazon well

My problem is with anyone having that much money & influence.
He is only the first trillionaire (on paper or whatever blah blah blah), there will be others but I personally think it's amoral and just not good for the world in general

And to those people who cite his philanthropy - The NY Times stated that most of what he does is basically a tax dodge or is fuelled by self interest.

I am sure he and Bezos will be instrumental in future space tourism and possibly even people living in space. But is that really what the world needs?

Yes I think the God complex has kicked in.

10 years ago he wasn't like this

This is true but that doesn't detract from what he's achieved. It's a shame that people who have a moral compass aren't always the people who drive the economy and the world forward. Maybe it's the fact that he's not a good man that makes him successful. Not sure.

Richard Dawkins talked about this in his book The Selfish Gene. Acting selfishly drives evolution. Not saying I agree but it's an interesting concept.

I disagree with his politics but I think he deserves all the money from his very successful businesses.

That's just a very one sided view of him.

He's a dangerous man who gets involved in politics to the detriment of ordinary people.

He is not a good man and people calling that out do not need to "Grow up".

Comfort yourself in the fact that he has a trillion dollars but still can’t buy a cure for being a total c*.

He also ran the Doge department, which destroyed USAID, leading to the deaths of half a million children.

No matter how rich he is, he's still an immoral bastard who caused those deaths.

FFS, even for Mumsnet this thread is full of dribbling idiocy. Musk doesn't have $1 trillion; it is the combined value of his shares in all of his companies. He is an entrepreneur and serially invests in companies, he employs around 125.000 people who would all lose their jobs tomorrow if he liquidated these organisations to give away a fortune. And btw, he donates $billions into various funds/trusts, Google it. Grow up Mumsnet.

I wrote this before I realised that DS bought 3 shares in Spacex, sold 2 of them and made $100! He said the price was starting to drop so he panicked and sold them. Obviously people have made millions but he's delighted! He is only 18 though so that's a couple of nights out with his mates.

He changed who he was in 2022. He's not a good person. But his companies are successful and are changing the world.

No. The shares he holds in Tesla and space x and other things are worth a trillion. So he is worth that much. A bad day on the markets can impact massively how much he's worth. With that sort of thing it's all about perceived future profits. Tesla is one of the biggest companies in the world but it only started making a profit recently, and most of that was down to bitcoin trading.

I can't stand him but there's no doubt he's a disrupter when it comes to business. Love him of loathe him, he has revolutionarized the car industry for the better. And space x means people anywhere in the world can access the internet. That's an amazing achievement, and take billions in investment.