On June 12, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. The SpaceX IPO catapulted his net worth, putting him well above billionaires like Google’s Larry Page and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
But sadly, all good things come to an end. After SpaceX’s stock took a dip on Tuesday, June 23, the trillionaire (scratch that, billionaire) is now only worth $975 billion (as of Wednesday morning), according toForbes. And the average American still only earns just over $69,800 a year, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration.
While no one is shedding a tear for Musk, social media lit up with thoughts on the news. In a recent Reddit post, one user joked, “Guys, I think I’m responsible. I just canceled my subscription to Starlink,” while others said, “ Now he is one of us. I also have no trillionaire status,” and a cheeky, “This is truly sad news, how will he cope?”
Others posted their views on Musk’s sudden slide, “Let’s just keep calling him a trillionaire so that he doesn’t do something stupid to our world trying to regain his status,” and, “IMO, he was never a trillionaire. If you can’t be taxed on stocks you own because they are ‘unrealized gains,’ you can’t claim it’s real money when you go to counting your gold doubloons.”
Some social media users had a few sarcastic suggestions to help Musk regain his status: “I think we should start a GoFundMe to help him out. Poor guy,” and “We have to help him! How can we send him all our money?”
Back in March, Musk shared his views on the future of the world economy, telling Peter Diamandis, “I do think we’ll have universal high income. We’re basically just issuing money to people, you know, and they are really just, because the output of goods and services will so far exceed the money supply that we effectively have deflation.”
He continued, “Basically, AI and robots are going to make so much stuff and provide so many services that they will actually run out of things to do for the humans.”
In what was the soundbite of the interview, Musk added, “I think money will stop being relevant at some point in the future.”
Forbesreposted the clip on June 13 (the day after Musk reached trillionaire status), and people had plenty to say. One commenter wrote, “Then why you got so much of it?” as another noted, “Says the man who has it.”
View this post on Instagram
Of course, no one is really concerned that Musk’s sudden loss will have much of an effect on the man who still holds the top spot as the wealthiest person on the planet!