How is it possible to be worth a trillion?

[aurpod1980]

Is it just utter madness that one man can be worth a trillion dollars ? $1000 billion Wtaf

@Whatafustercluck

And this

@Whatafustercluck

And also this

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

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).

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 😱

Thank you for your structured intellectual counter argument.

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