What it means to have a trillionaire
(Rough Draft 1. Written on Nov 9, 2025.)
Elon Musk, potentially Earth’s first trillionaire?
When I watch MSNBC’s coverage of Elon Musk’s “trillion-dollar pay package,” it eerily reminds me of Atlas Shrugged, which describes how those who actually provide the most value are cast as society’s villains.
The segment begins: “At a time when millions of people are struggling to put food on the table, Tesla is looking to make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.” What is problematic about this line of thinking is that it equates society’s struggles with the successes of another person. What Elon Musk is being awarded for is designing a system that creates far more value than it takes in. This is the law of economic thermodynamics: a business can only exist if it creates more value than it asks for—otherwise, market participants in a free and open market would never choose to part with their money.
Essentially, a thriving business is a successful source of social value. And so, in this instance, the MSNBC commentator is focused solely on the fact that someone has succeeded, rather than addressing the real problem he claims to care about—which is that people are struggling to put food on the table.
Under the commentator’s premise, the only logical conclusion is that “ownership” of a corporation like Tesla should not go to its founders or key leaders. Instead, I have no clue what this commentator is suggesting should happen to the organization. Should it be owned by the “millions of people who struggle to put food on the table”? In fact, it already is owned by all those people in the sense that they benefit from the tax receipts—corporate tax, income tax, sales tax, and so forth—that the company generates for America.
It reminds me of a conversation I once had with an acquaintance when I tried to explain this to her. I said, if I am a painter and I make a thousand paintings, and people want to buy them… who should the money from the sale of those paintings go to? Rather than approach the question directly, she changed tack and said, “I don’t like the way you framed that.” She then said she hates people who try to look at reality rather than what could be possible. It felt like a cringe-worthy dictatorial tendency covered up in nice-sounding words rather than an actual concern for value and the people responsible for it.
The workers of Tesla, or the shop laborers, are of course entitled to a share of the profits—and that is known as “wages.” This, too, is recast as “wage theft,” as if the hands that make a thing are the sole source of its value, rather than the ideas behind it. There is actually no ultimate material value that can be assigned to the person who originates the idea of a thing. This is where all the “wage theft” arguments fall short. For example: just because a cellist plays a Bach composition, does she suddenly have equivalent value to Bach? Obviously not. Any cellist could render the same piece, but there is only one Bach. However, it may be the case that a particular cellist grows in renown and is recognized on her own terms—in that sense, she is acknowledged for her own genius.
Back to the MSNBC reporter… yes, there are people in this country with material insecurity, but they would benefit from strong corporations providing better jobs, higher tax receipts, and better products—not from trying to strip the person who created a thing of their legitimate claim to it. Often, people are confronting their own insecurity when they become angry at another’s success, yet they parade around as if it is acceptable to be filled with envy rather than address the actual issue. This MSNBC anchor appears unwilling to do anything to solve the problem—other than complain about someone who is actually succeeding in their life and on behalf of the world. A Tesla worth $8 trillion would mean that Tesla had profoundly advanced humanity’s civilization project—and its leader would be greatly responsible for that, as determined by the owners of the corporation.
There are times I begin to feel that certain political opinions on the far left hide some of the most toxic and self-absorbed realities under the guise of “being helpful for all.” If you truly want to be helpful, go and do something about it. If not, I suppose just sit there and complain about someone who is actually following their passion.