WHEN INCOMPREHENSIBLE WEALTH IS POSSESSED BY A PERSON WITH A FLAWED CHARACTER, WHAT COULD HAPPEN?

Ever since Mr. Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, I have started to worry and wonder and struggle with the following questions:

1-       How much money is $ trillion dollars?

2-       How dangerous could it become if a person, with a deeply flawed personality possesses this amount of money?

Let me now try to answer these questions with my own ideas, thinking, and readings.

Some people try to explain how much money is $ trillion by stating that if you spent $1 million a day, it would take 1,000 years to spend it, or that if you stacked $100 bills totaling $ trillion, it would be 679 miles high.

In today’s world, excess wealth is the only source of power besides political power. The richer you are, the more powerful you are. A combination of both is much more dangerous in the hands of an unfit person. It makes him feel and believe that he is a God-sent gift, that he can do anything he wants, and that he is above the law.

Even though I admire Mr. Musk for his uniqueness, I consider him an innovative genius. He thinks big and accomplishes big things in life, such as his company SpaceX. It has become the benchmark in the aerospace industry. Its Falcon rocket delivery system has delivered about 10,000 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit with lawless regularity. Starling satellite system provides broadband access across the world.

The Dragon capsule, which sits atop the rocket delivery system, supplies aid and new crews to the International Space Station with dependable regularity.

His Tesla E.V. car company has become the world leader in sales and popularity. In addition, Mr. Musk owns a social media company, now called X, and A.I. startup companies.

So, it appears to me that Mr. Musk’s technical mastery is unmatched. He must be a technical genius.

But when I saw him waving a big chainsaw in his hand, at the White House as the chairman of President Trump’s cost-cutting committee, I crunched. I thought he was very puerile, rude, regrettable, and narcissistic with no empathy. How could a man of his caliber behave like this and support a very controversial, divisive, and self-serving president by contributing millions to his reelection campaign, and making himself used by him? So that Mr. Trump could cut his taxes, as well as his fellow millionaires' and enablers' taxes.

There must be some hidden psychopathological factors making people of Mr. Musk’s caliber behave as he did.

Let’s now see what happened after President Trump’s Administration's cost-cutting efforts. It is reported that the demolition of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) caused 800,000 lives, 500 000 of which were children, in the first year.

Current Ebola outbreaks in Africa are also caused by these aid cuts.

Cutting research grants to research institutions and universities led many scientists to move to Canada, Europe, and even China to continue their research, and enrollment of foreign students at prominent American universities dropped significantly

While these events were happening, President Trump reported $ 2.2 billion in income from Presidential enterprises last year.

When it comes to Mr. Musk, it is reported that he has no interest in philanthropy and sharing his excess wealth. He has no empathy; he considers empathy a sign of weakness. He wants to have more power, well over and above what excess wealth provides to satisfy his insatiable desire. He has what are considered megalomaniac ideas. He wants to control not only the US but the entire world and beyond, the space and planets. He wants to colonize the Moon and Mars.

Mr. Musk is already controlling the lower Earth orbit (LEO) with his 10,000 Starlink satellites. He wants to move A.I. data centers to LEO to supply their extensive energy needs with solar power to overcome competition from other A.I. companies.

So, everything looks nice and dandy, but how can we be sure he won't jeopardize humanity's future by remaining silent and letting so much power and control accumulate in one person who may be considered outside the normal range in character and behavior?