Writing in an opinion piece published by Common Dreams and Asia Times, Chuck Collins, co-founder of CARP and author of “Burned by Billionaires,” says Elon Musk’s arrival as the world’s first trillionaire should alarm anyone who cares about self-governing republics. His image for it: a red emergency light flashing on America’s democracy dashboard.
The figures behind the milestone come from SpaceX’s stock market debut. The company went public at a market capitalization of US$2 trillion, which Collins calls “probably inflated.” The IPO raised Musk’s net worth by an estimated $188 billion, and the first-day surge in the stock took his fortune to roughly $1.1 trillion, according to Forbes.
Collins says his objection is not to wealth as such. It is to what concentrated wealth can do to markets, politics and society. At Musk’s level, he writes, the money no longer goes on another mansion or jet. It buys “a media outlet, a senator,” and possibly, in Musk’s case, a president.
The record Collins cites
Musk bought Twitter and turned it into X, which Collins describes as a partisan and disinformation platform rife with hate speech and extremism. In the 2024 election cycle, according to Open Secrets, he gave $291 million to Donald Trump and Republican candidates.
Collins quotes Michael Mechanic of Mother Jones: “Musk expended 0.1% of his wealth in the process and got far more in return.” Mechanic also notes that the Trump administration promptly shelved dozens of investigations into Musk’s companies.
Musk then got the Department of Government Efficiency, named for a crypto meme coin he had invested in. Collins argues it served a self-interested data grab. Public Citizen found that 70% of the agencies DOGE targeted had conflicts of interest involving Musk’s businesses. Musk directed DOGE to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which would have overseen X’s move into payment processing.
Collins also writes that DOGE cuts to USAID and other humanitarian aid have contributed to an estimated 750,000 lost lives, with projected deaths from the cuts running into the millions. Government contracts for SpaceX, Starlink and other Musk companies grew too; The New York Times reported a rise in multi-billion-dollar awards in early 2025 as the Trump administration took power.
Not just Musk
America’s 16 centi-billionaires, Musk included, hold a combined $4 trillion, Collins writes. The 977 billionaires on the Forbes US wealth list own $9.24 trillion between them, according to Americans for Tax Fairness.
He insists the worry cuts across party lines, naming liberals George Soros and Tom Steyer alongside conservatives Musk and Peter Thiel. Musk was the top political donor in 2024, but five other billionaire households each gave over $100 million to candidates.
His remedy is a wealth tax. Oxfam, he notes, observes that Musk could hand $100 to every person on Earth and still be among the 10 richest people on the planet. It estimates a 10% wealth tax on Musk’s fortune alone could end global extreme poverty and lift 800 million people above the extreme poverty line.
Sources
- World's first trillionaire a flashing red light for US democracy – Asia Times
- The World's First Trillionaire Is a Flashing Red Light for Democracy | Common Dreams
