It won’t be a huge number, though. Capitalism still works to consolidate wealth. While there never has been any private individual with that much wealth before in human history, that kind of wealth is not unprecedented. The main reason is that people with that kind of wealth have historically been emperors. And make no mistake, anyone with that kind of wealth carries with them the threat of becoming an emperor. After someone becomes an emperor or a dictator, they gain absolute control over the GDP of whatever they control. But even now, Musk’s wealth is not even 1% of the world’s GDP. Someone like Augustus Caesar would have had several times more wealth, and direct control over something like 25% of the world’s GDP. Musk having this much wealth is disgusting - nobody should even be a billionaire. But, at the same time, in the grand scheme of things, he will be nothing more than a footnote in history. He has never done anything actually memorable. People only know him now because he’s a cunt with a lot of power. But power fades, and the world has had countless cunts. In the end, he’s not anyone special. In 100 years, the average person will likely have no clue who he was. Nor will they care.
Another upsetting thing about this is Elon is just the first of many more trillionaires to come.
It won’t be a huge number, though. Capitalism still works to consolidate wealth. While there never has been any private individual with that much wealth before in human history, that kind of wealth is not unprecedented. The main reason is that people with that kind of wealth have historically been emperors. And make no mistake, anyone with that kind of wealth carries with them the threat of becoming an emperor. After someone becomes an emperor or a dictator, they gain absolute control over the GDP of whatever they control. But even now, Musk’s wealth is not even 1% of the world’s GDP. Someone like Augustus Caesar would have had several times more wealth, and direct control over something like 25% of the world’s GDP. Musk having this much wealth is disgusting - nobody should even be a billionaire. But, at the same time, in the grand scheme of things, he will be nothing more than a footnote in history. He has never done anything actually memorable. People only know him now because he’s a cunt with a lot of power. But power fades, and the world has had countless cunts. In the end, he’s not anyone special. In 100 years, the average person will likely have no clue who he was. Nor will they care.
Not if we can summon the political will to tax them out of existence altogether.
But who am I kidding? The oligarchs in control are just waiting for their turn to be trillionaires themselves.