Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk is challenging the United Nations with a bet, offering to sell enough shares of his company Tesla to end world hunger, but only if the UN would prove beforehand how that money would be spent, according to USA Today.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted in response to a man named David Eli, who claimed that just 2 percent of Musk’s wealth is approximately $6 billion, just slightly smaller than the entirety of the UN World Food Program (WFP)’s 2020 budget of $8.4 billion. Eli ended his tweet by asking “How come it didn’t solve ‘world hunger’?”
In his response, Musk asked the WFP to “describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger.” If it did so, Musk said, then he would “sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
Musk’s challenge came after the WFP’s director, David Beasley, said in a CNN interview last week that the world’s top 400 billionaires, including Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, all needed to make a “one-time” contribution to the fund to end hunger for up to 42 million people around the world.
“The governments are tapped out,” Beasley said. “This is why and this is when … the billionaires need to step up now on a one-time basis, $6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated.”
Musk and Bezos are currently the two wealthiest people in the world. Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post and the private aerospace company Blue Origin, has a net worth of approximately $193 billion. Musk, who owns Tesla and another aerospace company called SpaceX, is worth about $309 billion.
“The world’s in trouble and you’re telling me you can’t give me .36% of your net worth increase to help the world in trouble, in times like this?” Beasley continued, trying to guilt-trip the billionaires into supporting his cause. “What if it was your daughter starving to death? What if it was your family starving to death? Wake up, smell the coffee, and help.”
In response to Beasley’s interview, Musk said that if he were to make such a donation, the process “must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent. Please publish your current & proposed spending in detail so people can see exactly where (the) money goes. Sunlight is a wonderful thing.”
Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk is challenging the United Nations with a bet, offering to sell enough shares of his company Tesla to end world hunger, but only if the UN would prove beforehand how that money would be spent, according to USA Today.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted in response to a man named David Eli, who claimed that just 2 percent of Musk’s wealth is approximately $6 billion, just slightly smaller than the entirety of the UN World Food Program (WFP)’s 2020 budget of $8.4 billion. Eli ended his tweet by asking “How come it didn’t solve ‘world hunger’?”
In his response, Musk asked the WFP to “describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger.” If it did so, Musk said, then he would “sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
Musk’s challenge came after the WFP’s director, David Beasley, said in a CNN interview last week that the world’s top 400 billionaires, including Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, all needed to make a “one-time” contribution to the fund to end hunger for up to 42 million people around the world.
“The governments are tapped out,” Beasley said. “This is why and this is when … the billionaires need to step up now on a one-time basis, $6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated.”
Musk and Bezos are currently the two wealthiest people in the world. Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post and the private aerospace company Blue Origin, has a net worth of approximately $193 billion. Musk, who owns Tesla and another aerospace company called SpaceX, is worth about $309 billion.
“The world’s in trouble and you’re telling me you can’t give me .36% of your net worth increase to help the world in trouble, in times like this?” Beasley continued, trying to guilt-trip the billionaires into supporting his cause. “What if it was your daughter starving to death? What if it was your family starving to death? Wake up, smell the coffee, and help.”
In response to Beasley’s interview, Musk said that if he were to make such a donation, the process “must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent. Please publish your current & proposed spending in detail so people can see exactly where (the) money goes. Sunlight is a wonderful thing.”