Close Ad

Elon Musk's Reaction To Brief Stint As World's Richest Was Asking How To Give His Fortune Away
Elon Musk On Giving Fortune Away
Motivation

Elon Musk's Reaction To Brief Stint As World's Richest Was Asking How To Give His Fortune Away

The CEO and founder of Tesla had a brief stint as the world's richest man last week, but Elon Musk doesn't plan to stay there.


His reaction was to give the money away

Last week, Tesla's stocked spiked, briefly making its founder, Elon Musk, the world's richest man. In fact, he was the richest person to ever live as his net worth surpassed the illustrious $200 billion mark (he made it to $209.3B), according to Bloomberg.

But when Musk first heard about the achievement, he quickly brushed it off.

"How strange," he wrote on Twitter. "Well, back to work."

Later that day, Musk asked his followers how they think he should give it away.

His plans are out of this world

Fellow billionaires like current richest man Jeff Bezos (Musk has dropped to second, according to Forbes) are frequently criticized for not giving away enough money to philanthropy -- and Musk isn't any better. In fact, if Musk gave away as much money as Bill Gates does he wouldn't have even been in that position.

Musk has signed The Giving Pledge, a vow by some of the world's richest people to give away more money, but he hasn't actually donated that much. He gave $257 million to the Musk Foundation in 2016 -- equivalent to about 0.1% of his net worth last week -- though little of that total actually made its way to charities.

But Musk could be planning to save his money for something big in the future.

In an interview with German publisher Axel Springer last month, Musk said he's planning to spend a lot of his money on setting up a human settlement on another planet.

“It’s going to take a lot of resources to build a city on Mars,” Musk said. “I want to be able to contribute as much as possible.”

Striving to do more

Musk can -- and should -- give more.

He's right that it isn't as simple as opening his bank account to solve world hunger or climate change, but billionaire Mackenzie Scott proves that it's possible to do more, now. She's shown that billionaires can quickly and scrupulously choose charities or programs that are doing good work and eliminate the rest.

Obviously it would be great if Musk helps humanity escape climate change and set up new communities on Mars, but he could certainly do more to help humanity today. Hopefully, Musk's recent post about giving away his money is a sign that he will.

More celebrity stories:

Hot Stories

Why Paul Walker Left His Only Daughter With Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel & Paul Walker were more than just friends, they were …

content.jwplatform.com

When the tragic news of Paul Walker's death surfaced, the world was left in shock. As one of the most beloved stars of the Fast and Furious franchise, his passing was felt deeply by fans around the globe. But perhaps the most devastating impact was felt by his daughter, Meadow Walker, who was left without a father.

Keep ReadingShow less
Life Stories
stranger pays for man's huge bill

We've all been there: you’ve loaded up your shopping cart or ordered a service, only to reach for your wallet and realize that it’s not there. It can be an embarrassing and anxiety-inducing scenario, one that sets the tone for the day.

A man faced a similar situation one day when he couldn’t remember his new PIN at a gas station. But when a stranger stepped in to help, he did more than save this man’s day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Uplifting News
friends ready for game night
Game Night photo by Big Potato on Unsplash
Game Night photo by Big Potato on Unsplash

People love trivia, that’s just a fact. That explains the popularity of long-running shows like Jeopardy or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and countless volumes of trivia books. Despite its close relationship to "trivial," trivia can be of great importance, particularly to those who love nothing more than to challenge -- and, ideally, beating -- their friends in battles of knowledge. And for that, they require hard trivia questions for the next big game night.

RELATED: Do the 36 Questions Really Lead to Love?

But how do you plan the best trivia night for your friends? You come up with the best trivia questions, and difficult trivia questions definitely rank among them.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture