Elon Musk, with the initial public offering (IPO)of SpaceX last month, became the world’s first trillionaire in terms of U.S. dollars. This could happen only in America.
Born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971, Musk founded and became CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX in 2002. SpaceX leads innovations in reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight.
SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station in 2012 and the first to transport NASA astronauts to the station in 2020. They have also successfully landed and reused rockets, drastically reducing the cost of space launches.
Musk was an early investor in Tesla, eventually becoming it’s CEO and product architect in 2008.
Other ventures include Neuralink, The Boring Company, the social networking service called X, and Starlink.
On June 12 — when SpaceX went public, becoming the largest-ever IPO at a valuation of $1.77 trillion — 4,400 workers at the company became millionaires, with 400 individuals’ worth rising to over $100 million each. That’s at least $44 billion.
This is what happens when entrepreneurs are given access to the world’s best free-market economy. They become wealthy, and they make countless others rich.
You won’t find this level of wealth creation in other countries including Canada, England, Germany, Brazil, Japan, India or China. There is a reason that there are more billionaires in America — 813 — than anywhere else.
Why do you think Musk chose America for his companies and not South Africa or Canada?
This is not a new phenomenon. This has been happening in America for over 200 years. Read about the giants of American industry: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, J. Paul Getty, and more. As they became wealthy, others around them became millionaires.
Socialists, like senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, are not excited by Musk’s achievement. Both multi-millionaires, they cannot stand it when others excel in America. They subscribe to the zero-sum game, believing that when one person gains wealth, it is balanced by another person’s loss, meaning the total benefit remains constant at zero.
California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X: “Americans are struggling to pay for groceries and gas while Elon Musk becomes a TRILLIONAIRE.”
Economics tells us that nothing could be further from the truth. Musk’s wealth has nothing to do with the cost of food.
Socialists don’t celebrate success in a capitalist society. They would rather redistribute wealth.
The fact that Musk became a trillionaire (if only for a few days) and thousands of others reached the millionaire plateau is great news. But there is even better news that is seldom reported. Extreme poverty around the world has been declining.
According to OurWorldinData.org, extreme poverty has fallen tremendously over the past generation. This is one of the most important ways our world has changed over time. Today, there are more than 1.5 billion fewer people living below the International Poverty Line of $3 per day than in 1990. This means, on average, that the number dropped by about 42.9 million per year, or about 118,000 people every day over the last 35 years.
Countries with the largest improvement embrace democracy and capitalism.
There are places where extreme poverty is still a problem, with little chance of improvement. Countries with large populations in extreme poverty — Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Burundi, and the Central African Republic — are marked with political instability through wars and rampant corruption.
Where America is concerned 1950 was highest recorded poverty rate at 22 percent. The lowest documented rate since statistics began was in 2019 at 10.5 percent. The Official Poverty Measure bumped up in 2023 to 11 percent. Still very low historically.
Only in America could Musk succeed the way he has. We should all be grateful for entrepreneurs like Musk.
