Why Elon Musk does not donate 6,600 million to the UN: this is how he distrusts philanthropy

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has challenged the director of the World Food Program (WFP) of the United Nations, David Beasley, to reveal in detail how they would invest a hypothetical donation of 6,600 million dollars from the founder of Tesla.

This challenge took place on Twitter, after David Beasley congratulated Musk through the social network for being the richest man. "Congratulations to Elon Musk on overtaking Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person – worth $221 billion! Elon, to celebrate, I'm offering you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: help us save 42 million people from starvation for just $6.6 billion! Offer expires soon...and lives too," he wrote.

Musk was quick to respond by doubting that this donation would solve the problem of poverty in the world. "If the WFP can describe in this Twitter thread exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I'll sell Tesla right now and do it." A shadow of doubt that Beasley soon countered. "The headline is not accurate. The 6,000 million dollars will not solve world hunger, but it will prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation. An unprecedented crisis and a perfect storm due to the COVID-19/conflict/climate crises".

"With your help we can bring hope, build stability and change the future. Let's talk: It's not as complicated as the Falcon Heavy, but the stakes are too high not to have at least one conversation. I can catch the next flight and go to wherever you are. Throw me out if you don't like what you hear," he explained in another tweet.

Faced with this defense by David Beasley, the founder of Tesla continued with his thesis and recommended to the World Food Program that they should make public the current expenses of the organization and move towards greater transparency. In fact, Elon Musk recalled a 2015 The Daily Express newspaper story about alleged sexual abuse of children from the Central African Republic by United Nations soldiers.

Elon Musk and philanthropy

This is not the first time that there has been some kind of altercation between Elon Musk and philanthropy. In fact, when he became the second richest man in the world last year, he already received criticism for his lack of commitment to philanthropy, which he also responded to on Twitter. "By the way, critical comments are always greatly appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (much harder than it sounds)," the millionaire said via his Twitter account on January 8. .

The truth is, Elon Musk is a novice in philanthropy when compared to the rest of the millionaires included in the list of the richest in the world. A clear example is Bill Gates, who together with his friend and also a billionaire Warren Buffett co-founded the Giving Pledge initiative, which urges the ultra-rich to donate at least half of their fortunes. Even Jeff Bezos, who has been criticized for being slow to establish himself as a philanthropist, has stepped up his game: He pledged $10 billion to climate change issues last year and gave $791 million to 16 environmental groups in November.

Despite signing the Giving Pledge, Musk has done relatively little publicly in the area of ​​philanthropy. However, last year he already indicated that the reason he is accumulating wealth is to give it away, or at least redirect it to his passion projects, namely space exploration. "It will take a lot of resources to build a city on Mars," he told German publisher Axel Springer last month. "I want to be able to contribute as much as possible."