How is it possible to be worth a trillion?

I thought he was named after their favourite East Anglian trunk road.

True, but it's always worth mentioning when people are praising Musk. He's not a good man. He's caused huge amounts of harm. A genuinely awful man

That wasn't the question.

It's disgusting to be sat on that amount of wealth when there are people who don't even have food or shelter.

Thank you. Someone else who sees the danger in so much money being concentrated in the hands of so few & particularly in the hands of someone like Musk.

I am not envious of Musk's super wealth, I find it obscene but also worrying. It gives him far too much power.

Oh come on, that's such an immature, childish argument and it just misses the point entirely.

We are talking about the super, super wealthy here, not even top earners.

The super wealthy could do so much good with their money and barely even notice it.

That's entirely different to ordinary people, even fairly rich ones, as you well know.

Capitalism & free markets.

Not saying it’s right but post Covid, the super rich have done incredibly well and someone soon was going to be the first trillionaire.

Half of this thread

It is odd to keep repeating the point that Musk’s money isn’t held in cash or sitting in a vault, as if that somehow makes it less real. It would be bizarre to keep more than a very tiny percentage of wealth in cash, to get eaten away by inflation. Wealth is held in income generating/appreciating assets, that is what keeps it growing.

In a personal sense there is nothing on earth that Musk could choose to buy that would cost more that the tiniest percentage of his wealth. Gigayachts are the most expensive things humans have come up with so far as a thing to spend personal money on, far more expensive than houses or jets, but even they have a limit.

If a billionaire/trillionaire wants to spend a huge amount of money on something, they don’t have to sell assets to do it. They use arrangements like Securities based Lines of Credit, where some of their stock is put up as collateral against a loan. Loans aren’t considered income, so they get access to a vast sum they can use to fund their lifestyle and make more acquisitions, but none of that money is taxed (and because they don’t have to sell their stock to do this, there is no capital gains tax to pay either).

These loans are considered low risk, so the rate of interest will be very low. In the meantime their wealth grows at a pace that far outstrips that interest. They never even need to pay the debt, they can just keep refinancing it until they die, swanning through life without having to pay tax.

What this vast hoard of wealth does (apart from allowing them to buy up assets that create yet more wealth) is buy influence and power. It is no coincidence that Trump surrounds himself with billionaires, or that Musk bought Twitter as his personal megaphone, and found himself in a position of genuine influence within the US government.

Does anyone think that these incalculable sums of money, concentrated in the hands of so few people, will to lead to less corruption in the world? The US has already demonstrated how quickly a democracy can bend towards oligarchy - a regime now run by the mega-wealthy to serve the interests of the mega-wealthy.

A large amount definitely. I’m not likely to be a trillionaire so I don’t worry too much

Dad was also just in Russia at Putin's economic forum- Tommy Robinson was his side kick. Theyre considered to be "useful idiots" by the regime.

If you read a bit more of the Wikipedia entry

"Analysis of tax filings by Bloomberg News and The New York Times have found that the Musk Foundation donations largely go to other projects affiliated with Musk or with benefits to his businesses.[3][4] In 2021, 2022, and 2023, the Musk Foundation failed to give away the minimum level of its assets, 5%, required by the Internal Revenue Service to avoid paying tax penalties.[3]

He's also very subtle.
Named his child after an aircraft that had no weapons or defense systems.
Just that it was very good at what it did.
Watching.
in May 2020, Grimes explained the meaning behind their son's name, X Æ A-12.
In a tweet, she said the "A-12" part of the name referenced the precursor to "our favorite aircraft," describing it as having no weapons or defenses, just speed — "Great in battle, but non-violent."
the A-12 was a Mach 3 spy plane built for the CIA back in the 1960s .
Known as archangel. Which may be a little bit god complex!

That is why it grows so much quicker than GDP - they are not just creating it, they are taking it.

Suppose it depends what you mean by "taking wealth".

But if you look at a business like SpaceX, it is expanding satellite launching hugely and lowering costs. A lot of that satellite launching is being used for projects like Starlink.

Starlink is basically energising the whole African continent, it's basically putting digital communications in place that are being used to grow the local economies. This is probably going to do far more in improving quality of life on the African continent than the overseas aid money we keep sending in.

This is the sort of stuff Musk is doing with his money. So for me, yes he is doing some less desirable stuff, but he is also doing some things that are beneficial.

I suspect most viewpoints of him are largely influenced by politics.

If you agree with his politics he's good. And if you don't he's bad.

Of course the truth, as is with most things, is that it's a bit more complicated than that.

Musk has moved roughly $8 billion in stock into the Musk Foundation since 2021, but actual distribution to outside charities has been much smaller and slower.
The headline numbers: Musk donated $5,703,165,040 to the Musk Foundation in 2021 and $2,245,989,389 in 2022 (Influence Watch) , on top of smaller amounts in prior years. By the end of 2024, the foundation held over $14 billion in assets (Wikipedia)
He's not just keeping it for himself.
I struggle to donate over 100 pounds to charities given my personal living circumstances .

Because once you have money - it's really, really easy to make more.
Bezos's ex wife made it her mission to give away her divorce settlement and shes given away billions. Shes now richer than she was at the start. So yes - it's been incredibly easy for him to double his money without that much effort.

I know what it means but the point still stands.

If you don't like the reference to Hitler, you can substitute it for Polpot or Mussolini or many others.

It's disgusting.

Can only hope he develops a taste for submarining.

For god's sake. Apparently many internet discussions drop into this old old tired trope.

Just awesome to see Godwins Law in operation.

Do Google it if you don't know what I mean.

Exactly!!! People always want OTHER people to give away their money so they don’t have to!!!

We only NEED enough money for basic survival, everything else is luxury!!!

Hitler's name is remembered. It isn't always something to aspire to.

He is undoubtedly brilliant.
Also has a great sense of humour.
Hat off to him. In this country it seems that people that do well are looked down upon by people that have done nothing of worth in their life.
His name will be remembered.
Will yours?

I presume you donate all of your excess money to various charities then? As you find having more than you need so embarrassing?

This is similar to what happens in the UK where we have plenty of talent but not enough investment. So UK entrepreneurs sell out to US investors, such as DeepMind selling to Google in 2014.

The US economy is boosted by the ideas of others around the world, not by native inventors. This is a problem for the UK economy.

There would need to be a global agreement to limit growth of successful companies otherwise some countries will always produce trillionaires.

Forcing successful creators to hand their assets to the state has already been attempted in several communist states and always ended up with greater poverty for all.