Elon Musk says it’s ‘dumb’ to call billionaires the bad guys

May 27, 2022

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Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, said on Twitter Thursday that billionaires aren’t the bad guys.

Musk tweeted that it is “morally wrong & dumb” to use the word billionaire as a pejorative if that person is using their wealth to create products that make “millions of people happy.

Musk was replying to a tweet that said, “I feel like billionaires are most benign when trying to make money, and most nefarious when spending it trying to “do good.”

Musk ran a Twitter poll, asking his 95 million followers who they trust less: politicians or billionaires. As of midday Friday, three-quarters of the 2.8 million respondents said they had less trust for politicians.

He then tagged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who recently told Bloomberg she wanted to replace her Tesla with an EV made by a company that supports unionization. Musk dared the Democratic congresswoman to run the same poll with her own followers. Musk has largely opposed unionization for Tesla in the past.

“A union is just another corporation,” Musk said in another Tweet Thursday, which had gained 4,000 likes by midday Friday. “Far better for companies to compete for your skills, so that you have maximum optionality.”

Musk’s pro-billionaire tweets arrived as the World Economic Forum in Davos comes to a close. The annual gathering of millionaires and billionaires has routinely been met with criticism about the failure of the world’s wealthiest people to give significant sums to solve the world’s biggest problems — as vulnerable populations across the world are expected to face surging energy prices, extreme weather and soaring food prices this year.

Gabriela Bucher, the executive director of Oxfam International, told CNN Business at Davos this week that governments should tax wealth on the world’s wealthiest people.