Elon Musk has criticized American workers for “trying to avoid going to work,” while praising the “hardworking people in China.”
His comments come not long after he warned Twitter staff about the extreme workload they face when he takes over.
Yikes!
Scroll on to find out what he said…
Now, Elon Musk is the complete embodiment of a classic eccentric billionaire…
Being the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineering Designer of not only Tesla but SpaceX too, he has an awful lot going for him.
As it currently stands, Tesla is the world’s leading electric car company…
With almost 500,000 vehicles being bought and distributed in 2020 alone. The company is pioneering the future of electric car travel with Musk as its CEO.
And then there’s Space X…
Space X became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft, as well as the first to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).
And due to his accomplishments, Musk has cashed in a serious amount of money since starting his businesses…
Back in January 2021, according to the BBC, Musk finally became the richest man in the world, knocking Jeff Bezos out of 1st place.
Quite the achievement, I know!
However, the feud between Musk and Bezos had been ongoing all year, with the pair yo-yo-ing between 1st and 2nd place.
Well, until late last year…
Musk saw a jump of 4.9 percent for the stock price of Tesla at the start of the year – an increase that came just days after finishing the first trading session of the year where they saw an increase of 3.4 percent.
Musk’s net worth subsequently soared shortly after to a staggering $188 billion, as per Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
And with Jeff Bezos’ net worth standing at $187 billion, Elon Musk was ultimately placed as the world’s richest man.
Things just kept getting better for Musk, and as of September 7th, he was reportedly worth over $200 billion…
Making him the 3rd person in the world to ever reach that milestone, behind Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury brands Moët, Hennessy, and Louis Vuitton.
A great achievement for Musk!
And of course, he went about the news in the most typical “Elon Musk” way.
In response to the news, he simply tweeted, “How strange”…
Before adding: “Well back to work.”
Then, almost a month after beating Bezos and becoming the world’s richest man…
He secured his position in 1st place.
On October 25th, 2021, Musk left his competitors in the dust as he reportedly gained a further $36 million…
Taking him up to a whopping $269 billion according to Forbes.
However, despite being crowned the richest man in the world, it hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows for the CEO…
In 2021 alone, he split from his long-time girlfriend Grimes, as well as having to pay up for some unpaid taxes due to unrealized gains in Tesla stock. So all in all, it was a choppy year.
Now, Elon really did make the headlines an awful lot last year.
And it was always in celebration of his success.
He started this year off right, too. The $11 billion in taxes he paid have definitely been a thing of the past for him because he almost tripled what he paid in 2021, and it was only the beginning of 2022.
How? You might ask…
It’s all down to his Tesla company.
In 2021, Tesla manufactured 936,000 vehicles, allowing for a rise in stock prices, as per LADbible.
And to put his riches into perspective…
By Musk paying $11 billion in taxes last year, he gave 0.0036 percent of his earnings away. Yep, it might make you want to cry yourself to sleep, but that’s the truth.
And recently, Musk has been showing us all just how wealthy he truly is…
By bidding $44 billion for Twitter, which he already had a 9% acquisition in.
Musk wrote in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Committee: “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
“However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
Yep, that’s right, Musk met with Twitter executives over the weekend to discuss the possibility of taking on the company.
As per the Wall Street Journal, he got financing for $46.5 billion in order to make it happen.
And they accepted making Musk the new owner of Twitter!
As impossible as this might sound, there was a reason why his offer was too good to miss…
According to the WSJ, Twitter shareholders wanted a payout from the company, so his bid couldn’t have come at a better time.
Musk has already made it clear that he wants to make some changes to the site…
One being longer Tweets and another being the excessive amount of ads being toned down. He also suggested that the site would be better off going private.
Opinions on Musk’s acquisition of the site have been very mixed.
While some have celebrated it, others are very much against Musk taking over.
Not only that, but many have questioned why Musk didn’t donate the money to charity instead.
People have pointed out that money of that amount could have been used to help millions of people around the world
Musk explained why he didn’t donate the money to charity…
Musk was asked why he didn’t use the money to help others while attending the Met Gala.
Speaking Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet, Musk was asked why he didn’t use the money for “charity, philanthropy, or more good.”
To which Musk responded that he already does a lot of good “for the future of humanity.”
“Well I do do a lot of things philanthropically and really my companies are intended to do good for the future of humanity,” he told the reporter.
He explained that Tesla is trying to “accelerate the advent of sustainable transport and energy” while Space X is “providing internet to the least served people around the world.”
Musk also added that he has been able to help Ukraine by providing Starlink terminals.
“Aspirationally I am trying to do good for humanity and the future of civilization,” he said.
And recently, he’s warned Twitter staff that they will face an “extreme” workload when he takes over.
And people have mixed opinions on his statement…
“So you think you can put the right ethical benchmark for anyone? Why you? Who do you think you are?” one Twitter user questioned underneath his Tweet.
While another said: “Work ethic expectation will be extreme? I see a union in your future.”
“I assume the pay is also EXTREME?” somebody else began.
“I hope you don’t forget that while you were sleeping in the Tesla factory you made 8.8 million dollars per hour (mean since 2018). Do you think the engineer making 80$/h should only be sleeping a few milliseconds in the factory?” they continued.
Somebody else noted that they had met somebody who worked for the billionaire…
“I met one of your managers and asked what you were like to work for. She said you were quirky but the absolute best person she’s ever worked for. Demanding but provides resources and direction when needed. No micromanaging. She said she felt free to do her job. Impressive…” they explained.
In a tweet on Friday Musk wrote: “If Twitter acquisition completes, company will be super focused on hardcore software engineering, design, infosec & server hardware.”
And replying to his Tweet, he warned staff of the social media platform that he expects a great work ethic from them.
But he also assured them that their “work ethics” would be “less” than he himself is going to display.
“Also, work ethic expectations would be extreme, but much less than I demand of myself,” he stated.
And his most recent comments solidify his statements, as he claims Americans “are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
Musk’s recent comments came in response to a question during an interview with the Financial Times about electric startup companies that he thought were going to be the best.
He admitted that he feels China will produce “some very strong companies” because of their workforce.
“There’s just a lot of super-talented, hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing,” Musk said before announcing that Volkswagen was currently “doing the most.”
“They won’t just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3 a.m. oil,” he said of the Chinese workforce.
“They won’t even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
Musk has himself burnt the “3 a.m. oil” during “production hell” for the Tesla Model 3, where he slept on the factory floor.
“I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company,” he said back in 2018. “Whenever they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse.”
What do you think of his comments?