Recently, CEO Elon Musk responded to Senator Bernie Sanders’ criticism regarding his vast wealth. Musk stated that he would use his money to help humanity.
“I am accumulating from various sources to help create interplanetary life and expand understanding to the stars,” Musk replied on Twitter. According to Bloomberg statistics, Elon Musk currently holds $170 billion, making him the second richest person in the world after Jeff Bezos.
Musk became the richest person in the world alongside Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Lawmakers from the Democratic Party have continually called for higher taxes on billionaires.
“We are in a historic moment in America where two men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, own more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population,” Senator Bernie Sanders said on Twitter.
He added, “The level of greed and inequality is not only immoral but also indefensible.”
An article published on Clean Technica’s website referred to the senator’s comments as “truly humorous.” Musk responded to this article, stating that he plans to use his money to create interplanetary life.
Last year, Musk planned to send 1 million people to Mars by 2050, creating many jobs on the Red Planet. He expressed that he is “highly confident” that SpaceX’s first Starship rocket could land on Mars by 2026. However, many aviation experts have expressed skepticism about this timeline.
Musk has even publicly stated his intention to settle on Mars. At the end of May last year, Musk announced that he planned to sell “most” of his assets and would “not own any houses.” Since then, this entrepreneur has put many homes from his nearly $100 million real estate portfolio up for sale.
In 2020, Musk also sold many high-value assets, including three houses in Los Angeles and a property that once belonged to actor Gene Wilder.
Musk may also part ways with properties in California as he moves to Texas – a state with no personal income tax. Additionally, this billionaire has stated that he is working to accumulate wealth to ultimately serve the purpose of settling on Mars.
“I think it is important for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization, or a multi-planetary species. Building a city on Mars requires a lot of resources, and I want to contribute as much as possible to that effort.” Both Musk and Bezos have recently alternated as the richest people on the planet. When Musk’s fortune soared to $188 billion in January, he officially surpassed Bezos, who held the title since 2017.
At that time, Musk commented on becoming the richest person in the world: “How strange it is.”
Last week, Sanders posed several questions about Bezos’s wealth through tweets, subsequently mentioning the wealth of both Musk and Bezos during a congressional hearing on Wednesday morning.
“Bezos and Musk currently own more wealth than 40% of the poorest people in America. Meanwhile, we are witnessing more poverty in America than at any other time.”