By Steve Levy
After Elon Musk‘s SpaceX went public, the entrepreneur catapulted to become the first trillionaire in world history.
Many folks, from socialists down to the average working stiff, are outraged, claiming that no single individual should have so much money.
But you can count me in the camp along with National Review‘s Charles Cooke, who celebrates when an American can create a product that is so universally coveted that he earns unlimited money.
As I noted in my book Solutions to America’s Problems, class envy is a very dangerous thing.
We shouldn’t be focusing so much on what others are making, as opposed to our ability to move up the social ladder for a higher quality of life.
Who cares if some people are getting super-rich if economic growth means that you, I and everyone else are making more money as well?
There’s nothing virtuous about having every resident equally poor, as is the case in Cuba or North Korea (with the exception, of course, of their ruling classes in the Communist Party who are living large.)
Jeff Bezos became a billionaire because he revolutionized how we shop. He made it convenient for us to stay at home and get stuff delivered.
The inventor of Uber made billions because access to cheaper transportation was provided to millions.
Steve Jobs became super-rich because he invented an iPhone and an iPad that revolutionized communication.
Elon Musk created PayPal, Tesla and now SpaceX.
If people didn’t want to invest in his products, he wouldn’t make so much money.
I’ve never had a problem with LeBron James making $40 million a year, because he’s worth it to the team owners since he brings in so much revenue to the arena.
The problem, of course, is when our economy is stagnant and we see some individuals getting super-rich while the middle and working classes are struggling.
That’s the case today because the inflation beast has not yet been tamed.
But inflation is roaring not because Musk became a trillionaire, but rather because of foolish government policies that simply spent, and wasted, too much money.
As was proven in the Kennedy, Reagan and the first Trump administrations, cutting taxes and incentivizing investment create a thriving economy that results in a benefit to all. In each of those time periods, wages and wealth grew for the working and middle classes after across-the-board tax cuts were enacted.
What’s especially galling is that the new multimillionaires, such as Bernie Sanders and Jimmy Kimmel, are complaining that no one should be a billionaire, let alone a trillionaire.
This is equally exasperating, coming from Kimmel, who has a net worth of over $50 million.
In the wealth envy game, everything is relative. It’s obnoxious to Kimmel that someone can be a billionaire, but it might be just as equally revolting to someone making $50,000 a year that someone like Kimmel could have $50 million for simply telling jokes on late night.
And then there’s Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, who dates Kim Kardashian. He, too, stated that no one should be a billionaire. Someone has to remind him that he himself is worth $500 million and the woman he’s sleeping with has a net worth of $2 billion. When do we start confiscating her wealth to bring her under a billion?
So chill out on the news that Elon is making so much money.
He’s got a product people want. If they didn’t want it, they wouldn’t invest, and he wouldn’t make that kind of money.
And beware of setting some type of limit as to what people can make, because what might be unreasonable to you may come back to bite you when someone making far less than you starts coming after your wealth because he simply feels it’s just too unreasonable. Hear that, Jimmy Kimmel?
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of the “On the Right Side Podcast.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com