Democracy is dead: Elon Musk becomes world's first TRILLIONAIRE with SpaceX IPO
About this episode
Ben Norton discusses Elon Musk's rise to becoming the world's first trillionaire and the implications for democracy and wealth concentration in the US.
Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire, with the IPO of his company SpaceX. He is a symbol of how the United States has become an oligarchy, where elections are bought by rich elites and large corporations, and extreme wealth is concentrated in a few hands. Ben Norton explains. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj-hd3l4dSo Topics 0:00 Elon Musk, world's first trillionaire 0:50 Oligarchy 1:54 SpaceX IPO 3:06 SpaceX is losing lots of money 4:13 Wall Street changes the rules 5:39 Trump coin pump and dump 6:14 Reasons to avoid SpaceX 7:04 Musk: symbol of US oligarchy 8:45 Wealth concentration 9:55 Gilded Age & robber barons 11:13 Money wins US elections 13:06 Elon Musk funded Trump 14:52 Larry Ellison buys up media 17:14 Capitalist class 18:19 Progressive Era 19:27 Great Depression & New Deal 20:08 Golden Age of capitalism 20:59 Tax rates 22:08 Tax burden shifts onto workers 23:24 Billionaires avoid taxes 24:34 Neoliberalism 25:18 Financial crisis & QE 26:54 Neofeudalism / technofeudalism 28:27 Artificial intelligence (AI) 29:24 Universal basic income (UBI) 30:50 Nationalize Big Tech 33:04 China's alternative 33:58 Outro
People in this episode
Host: Ben Norton
Topics covered
- Oligarchy
- Wealth concentration
- SpaceX IPO
- US elections
- Neoliberalism
- Artificial intelligence
- Universal basic income
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: SpaceX
More episodes of Geopolitical Economy Report
- This country is resisting US meddling, and fighting back!
- Trump restarts war on Iran, but has no way out: The US lost
- Americans are NOT wealthy: The truth about the US economy
- He accidentally revealed the truth about the US strategy for Iran
- This scandal says everything about the West's hypocrisy
- The real reason US Big Tech corporations fear China
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Geopolitical Economy Report podcast page.