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

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 .

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.

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!

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]

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.

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

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.

Half of this thread