Perhaps one of the most polarizing people in today’s world, is the richest man in the world, (at the time of this writing), Elon Musk.
He is praised, and he is condemned.
To some, he is looked upon as the Eighth Wonder of the technological world. By some, he is regarded as a creature from the eighth circle of Hell.
Like any other person of power, like any other phenomenon, (and Musk certainly may be regarded as a phenomenon), the reality is mixed. The palette that paints Musk is not in black and white.
Let’s take a look, not through a glass darkly, but through crystal clear reality.
In January 2025, Musk donated Tesla stock in the approximate amount of one hundred twelve million dollars to charity.[1] Are there tax benefits in doing so — of course — just like there are tax benefits to any donor to charities which through their legal status, offer deductions to their contributors.
But, there are social benefits to his donations, which cannot be denied, even by his most voluble critics.
The Musk Foundation’s charitable recipients ‘include international aid nonprofits such as Doctors Without Borders, healthcare organizations such as World Spine Care, and the co-educational Mirman School for Gifted Children.’[2]
We can look at tax motivations, true, but we can also look at the tangible benefits bestowed, and these are significant.
Elon Musk was not the incorporator of Tesla, which was legally created in 2003. But, in 2004, it was Musk that led the first round of funding to the company, and a company, no matter what its purpose may be, no matter what its potential may be, is only a legal entity without funding.
When Musk became the CEO of Tesla in 2008, the company launched its first electric car.
While last year, Tesla wasn’t the lead seller of electric vehicles, it had the largest market capitalization of all automakers — five hundred and seventy-one BILLION dollars.[3]
Unfortunately, it appears that the Tesla electric vehicle is the most unreliable electric car manufactured — with respect to used cars.[4]
However, major auto manufacturers in the United States have had vehicles that were likewise unreliable in their time — and that time was 2024.
The Ford 150, the Jeep Wrangler, the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Ford Escape Hybrid, the Chevrolet Colorado, and the GMC Canyon were all listed by Consumer Reports among the top 10 unreliable vehicles in 2024.[5]
It should be noted that manufacturing and advancing technologies do, on occasion, take a misstep, do fall off the rails. But in an ongoing process, products are improved, both in function and reliability.
It’s not only cars that may at one point in time be unreliable, or even dangerous. It can happen to the most technologically advanced spacecraft, as the world witnessed in 1986 when the Challenger space shuttle exploded, killing all seven of the crew.
A design flaw in the rubber O-rings caused the problem, allowing a gas leak that ended the mission in the worst possible way.[6]
In 2002, Musk began his involvement with the space program, with his company SpaceX.
In 2020 SpaceX teamed with NASA, and sent two astronauts on a round trip to the International Space Station, the first time that was accomplished by a private concern.[7]
That wasn’t only a technological achievement, it was a success that had significant political ramifications, because:
‘NASA certified SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon human spaceflight system for crew missions to and from ISS – meaning the US would no longer have to rely solely on Russia's Soyuz rocket to transport US astronauts to and from the space station.’[8]
In 2021, Musk’s SpaceX gave a rocket ride to some billionaires, and that event was responsible for providing two hundred and forty three million dollars to St. Jude’s Research Hospital.[9]
Musk is the driving force for the future exploration of Mars, as John F. Kennedy was the political driving force for our country being the first ever to land men on the moon. It is imagination that leads to innovation, and innovation that leads to the kind of technological triumphs that have been the hallmark of the United States.
In 2024, Musk predicted that within four years, humans will have visited the planet Mars, and within twenty years, there shall be a self-sustaining human colony on the planet.[10]
Of course, many space scientists disagree. In any event, whether or not the prediction of Musk comes true, it will lead to progress towards that goal. It will result in technological innovation, and a renewal of that spirit of exploration that has perhaps been missing from our country for too long.
It seems that Musk is a force to reckon with, both on the ground and in outer space. But in recent times he has emerged as a player in American politics with seemingly unlimited access to the President and the Oval Office.
Some people are afraid of that. Some people wonder why he has access to the keys to the kingdom of the most powerful nation in the world — the United States of America.
Musk is now the power behind the reformation of the government, with respect to seeking out and eliminating government waste. Any reader who has been following my articles in The Conspiracy Report will know that government waste — in both social and defense expenditure of public funds has been rampant. And that was well before the world heard of Trump or Musk as political players.
So, the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency may not be the evil entity some claim, but might just be a boon to the proper allocation of government funds. It may end up being a benefit to the rank-and-file taxpayers that are the source of those funds.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
As citizens of what is still the greatest country in the world, the country that is the desired destination for the oppressed of the world, we must care about not only maintaining our technological advantage, but our very economic existence.
Every other month, we hear about potential government shutdowns, we hear about our rising national debt, and part of that, of course, is a product of not only overspending, but inappropriate spending.
President Calvin Coolidge, once famously said, ‘The chief business of the American People is business,’ and that’s hard to argue with, for it is private enterprise that is the springboard to innovation, and in many cases the foundation of our economy.
For that reason, it may not be a bad idea to have a mega successful businessman like Musk as a guiding force away from waste, and as a driving force in our country’s technological innovation.
[1] ELON MUSK DONATES 112 MILLION TO CHARITIES, BLACK ENTERPRISE, 1/6/25 https://www.blackenterprise.com/elon-musk-donates-112-m-save-taxes/
[2] INFLUENCE WATCH, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/musk-foundation/#:~:text=Charitable%20recipients%20of%20Musk%20Foundation,Mirman%20School%20for%20Gifted%20Children.
[3] THE STORY BEHIND TESLA’S SUCCESS, Amy Wu, 1/11/25, INVESTOPEDIA, https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/061915/story-behind-teslas-success.asp
[4] TESLA IS ONE OF THE LEAST RELIABLE USED CAR BRANDS:CONSUMER REPORTS, Iulian Dnistran, 8/28/24 INSIDE EVS https://insideevs.com/news/731559/tesla-least-reliable-used-car-brands/
[5] THE 10 LEAST RELIABLE CARS, Jon Linkov, 12/5/24 CONSUMER REPORTS https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/10-least-reliable-cars-a2967595976/
[6] THE CHALLENGER EXPLOSION AND ITS AFTERMATH, Advanced Physics Archives https://www.aps.org/archives/publications/apsnews/200101/history.cfm
[7] WHAT IS SPACEX AND WHY IS ELON MUSK WORKING WITH NASA, BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-52809202
[8] 14 BIG MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF ELON MUSK’S SPACEX, Grace Kay, 4/23/23 BUSINESS INSIDER, https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-history-biggest-moments-elon-musk-2022-12
[9] IBID
[10] MUSK SAYS HUMANS CAN BE ON MARS IN FOUR YEARS, 9/5/24 THE GUARDIAN https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/sep/15/musk-humans-live-on-mars-spacex