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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Alexander Hurst

Elon Musk is becoming a one-man rogue state – it’s time we reined him in

Donald Trump in Maga cap and Elon Musk in aviator sunglasses
Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, 19 November 2024. Photograph: Brandon Bell/Reuters

Elon Musk is, more or less, a rogue state. His intentions are self-serving and nefarious, and his nation-state level resources allow him to flout the law with impunity. To put it into context, if dollars were metres, Musk’s money would be enough to take him to Mars and back, while a mere millionaire could only make a round trip from Paris to Amsterdam.

The sheer immorality of any one person possessing so much wealth is obvious to most people with basic amounts of empathy. But when it comes to Musk and the other 14 people worth more than $100bn, the morality of it is almost a secondary concern. Their individual wealth is a society-distorting threat to democracy in the same way that economics has always recognised monopolies to be dangerous to a functional market.

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