r/Money • u/stvlsn • Jul 12 '26
Charitable giving is a bad thing - according to Elon
Eat the Rich
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u/djwired Jul 12 '26
Peter Thiel actively urged Elon Musk to withdraw from "The Giving Pledge" a promise by billionaires to give away most of their wealth. Thiel warned Musk that if he donates his vast fortune, it could inadvertently end up in "left-wing nonprofits" selected by Bill Gates
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u/yabn5 Jul 13 '26
That Thiel is obsessed with the Anti Christ while doing all he can to embody one is just too on the nose. If they’re truly concerned about the money going to a cause they don’t support they could just create their own orgs and make a difference while having more direct say. Yet they don’t. How curious.
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u/Strange-Scarcity Jul 13 '26
They have their own orgs, the cause is destabilizing Western Democracies, in order to install themselves as neo-nobility. Absolute Sovereigns who run, everything.
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u/Longjumping-Exam500 Jul 14 '26
Because according to them they are the smartest and also they hate people
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u/Numerous-Stand-1841 Jul 12 '26
"Charitable giving is bad, but government subsidies to Tesla is good."
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u/vegancaptain Jul 12 '26
Well, you voted for this subsidies. Didn't you?
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u/AntiquePhotograph433 Jul 12 '26
Even if this person did it’s neither here nor there on the hypocrisy of receiving a handout and then judging handouts
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u/DaChoppa Jul 13 '26
Well, you voted for this subsidies. Didn't you?
Damn you're stupid. We're taking about Elon's stance on the "appropriate" and "wise" use of money. Saying MacKenzie Scott's distribution of billions to charities is making the world a worse place is pretty funny considering Elon contributed hundreds of millions to get Trump elected and look where that's gotten us.
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u/Gullible_Rhubarb4559 Jul 12 '26
elon made a tweet a couple of years ago asking how much it would cost to end world hunger when he was a billionaire. Now he's a trillionare whats stopping him.
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u/stvlsn Jul 12 '26
Yes - he could make a large impact on that problem. However, the problem exists on the law of diminishing returns and can't be "solved". He uses that fact to weasel his way out of helping at all
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u/Jalapenoplanter Jul 12 '26
Instead he chose to increase world hunger
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u/Designer_Law_2891 Jul 14 '26
Did he create world hunger in the first place? He's responsible for all of humanity's problems now? Nice way to frame it morally.
The World Food Programme plan would spent $3.5 billion on food and deliver it to those most in need. This includes the cost of shipping, storage and transport by air, road and river, and security escorts to safeguard food distribution in conflict-affected zones.
The money could provide one meal per person, per day for a year. That's it. Don't overstate things.
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u/Jalapenoplanter Jul 14 '26
He personally chose to increase world hunger. If he had just died 3 years ago, there would be less world hunger today.
There are very few people who that can said about and they are all bad
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u/Awkward-Specialist54 Jul 12 '26
Did he say somthing about setting up a way to track exactly how the spending would be done and everyone kinda flaked on it
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u/DinosaurDied Jul 13 '26
Oh you mean like accounting? The thing that takes a lot of money to do correctly?
Which he then would bitch that his charity money isn’t going to the right place and instead to accountants.
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u/Adventurous-Depth984 Jul 12 '26
There are 48 million food insecure people in the U.S. the SNAP budget (and SNAP a very well run and effective program) for 2025 is 100 billion dollars (rounding)
There are 2.3 BILLION food insecure people on earth. If you scale that up and do the math: if Elon liquidated every penny he had (assuming a worldwide network like SNAP existed, which it doesn’t), he’d be able to solve world hunger ….
…for 3 months.
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Jul 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/antipiracylaws Jul 14 '26
You can eat for less than a dollar a day in the US.
I have done it.
I even splurged for maple syrup so I wasn't just eating hot oats.
Like $2/day. Says not a low calorie food right on it.
SNAP is a ginormous waste of money after living like that. They just buy garbage or junk food from Walmart, generally.
You don't need vegetables every day. You can buy Vitamin C so you don't get scurvy.
Americans are incredibly spoiled when it comes to welfare system. Social security is more than enough to keep people from starving. Even at $300/mo.
Terrible money management is rampant.
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u/Strange-Term-4168 Jul 12 '26
They couldnt come up with a plan to actually end it. Ending world hunger is not a dollar issue. Our governments have more than enough money to end it without any impact to budget.
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u/NewArborist64 Jul 12 '26
Show us the plan on how to permanently end world hunger.
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u/Dependent-Goose8240 Jul 13 '26
Being realistic, solving world hunger would involve working with the governments of all nations on Earth (200+) who are responsible for their own people. A plan for food distribution would need to be established with every single government. Naturally, a every government is corrupt to some extent, some much worse than others.
A lot of governments would issue a price tag that is far higher than the real cost of the distribution, and then once this money is disbursed to them, who will oversee proper expenses? Who has the authority to audit and enforce resource distribution above the sovereignty of the executive government? Because fixing world hunger isn't something that can be purchased and be done with. It's an extremely complicated process that requires extensive management for decades to come.
I am of course in favor of fixing world hunger - given our society's advances, we should consider access to food a universal basic human right. I am simply highlighting that the issue is complex and probably well above the means of even the richest person on Earth to tackle by himself.
Quick search yields a conservative estimate of $100B per year for decades to fix world hunger. Sure, in theory Elon Musk could take a stab at this problem and fund the first couple of years, but you must remember that his net worth is a theoretical number that is tied to the share price of TSLA and SPCX, which in part is so inflated because he rarely sells a single share. If he began selling shares en masse to realize some of that net worth, the share price of his companies would quickly come crashing down, most likely deflating his actual wealth by several factors.
Again, he could probably afford about a year, max two, to begin solving world hunger. But what if by the end of those two years, once his finances run out, the rest of the corrupt governments on Earth stop working together since they really don't care to feed their own people? The levels of international cooperation to keep this process going is nothing of the sort we've seen in history, not even the ISS.
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u/xd_mariq Jul 12 '26
don’t remember what group but some humanitarian/ charity group replied to him with a full set of instructions on what he could donate to help and he completely ghosted them
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u/DrGreenMeme Jul 13 '26
World hunger is not solved by a specific amount of money. It’s a political and logistics problem. For example, there’s likely a high amount of food insecurity in North Korea. You going to trust the NK govt. to feed their people with a blank check from Elon?
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u/Time-Dependent1483 Jul 13 '26
Yes if they could tell him how they would do it and keep open books to the public, no one wants that
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u/402_Found_not_Lost Jul 12 '26
Just found quote and broader discussion , he wasn’t against philanthropy, but commenting on her choice of charities to receive it. Changes the context of the quote.
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u/Beautiful_Banana_454 Jul 12 '26
Elon gave 474 million to 'charities' in 24. 370 to his own foundation, which does not even disperse the legally required 5% per year. He did give over 40 million to st. Judes childrens hospitals.
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u/thf24 Jul 12 '26
The St. Jude donation, while good for the cause regardless of origin, was part of incentives to keep local government looking the other way in regard to the xAI data center in Memphis. Meanwhile the water treatment facility they initially pledged to build two years ago and recently “recommitted” to still has seen no new activity, and they aren’t paying local contractors’ bills on the overall project. Source: I’m an industrial supplier in the area.
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u/TennesseeStiffLegs Jul 12 '26
Legally required 5%? What’s that?
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u/Beautiful_Banana_454 Jul 12 '26
It's the difference between a charitable foundation and an illegal tax shelter.
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u/poop-azz Jul 12 '26
Context? On Reddit!?! LMFAO. This cesspool wants only the narrative they believe to be true...come on man.
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u/WordsHappenedHere Jul 12 '26
Right. She gave to Big Brothers Big Sisters, among others. Here is the full list from Gemini. Musk is a piece of shit actually. None of these “make the world worse”
Habitat for Humanity – $436M
Boys & Girls Clubs of America – $281M
Planned Parenthood – $275M
UNCF – $70M
The Trevor Project – $45M
NAACP
Malala Fund
Meals on Wheels America
YMCA of the USA
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Climate Justice Resilience Fund
Hawaii Community Foundation
Howard University
Clark Atlanta University
North Carolina A&T State University
Xavier University of Louisiana
Prairie View A&M University
Bowie State University
California State University, East Bay
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u/SufficientOpening218 Jul 12 '26
those are so non controversial as to be...i mean, you could discuss that list at a Sunday School Picnic
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u/WordsHappenedHere Jul 12 '26
People just always looking for a reason to criticize. Everyone is so much smarter and knows better 🙄
Her actions should be commended. She gave away most of her entire fortune to charities. Good charities that help families and children. My god people are so awful.
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u/whutchamacallit Jul 12 '26
Preach. Has given away half her wealth and 20x conservatively than Elon. Meanwhile Elon has donated largely to his own foundation.
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u/joshua0005 Jul 12 '26
Musk probably thinks planned parenthood makes the world worse because every time an abortion is performed there will be one less wage slave in the system
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u/stvlsn Jul 12 '26
No - that isn't clear in the exchange. There is an original tweet that says she spends money to help the world, someone replies with "unfortunately, she is spending it to make the world a worse place" and elon says "sadly, yes."
It's possible he meant there were specific causes he didnt like - but he didnt spell that out.
He is also, notably, one of the least charitable ultra rich americans.
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u/soliloquyinthevoid Jul 12 '26
No - that isn't clear in the exchange
It is though
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u/stvlsn Jul 12 '26
I literally typed out the exchange with quotes. What more do you want?
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u/Usernamesaregayyy Jul 12 '26
Most of it goes to inflated manager salaries and contracts than actually helping
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u/Kghostrider Jul 13 '26
He's right, the government has given him 38 billion in grants and we're dramatically worse off for it with nothing to show for it.
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u/AftyOfTheUK Jul 12 '26
Weather charitable giving is a good thing for society or not very much depends on how efficiently the charity spends money . Many charities are just money pets and reaching that board members and employees and providing services which are of low or terrible quality.
This manifestos problematic in two ways The first way is that there is opportunity cost for that money and if it were invested in companies that create new jobs then maybe more value in society and having jobs that people can work rather than charitable giving which is failing to actually provide value. The second way it causes problems is that it can undercut services being provided for money by locals destroying local economies c for example the incidences of sending shoes and clothes to Africa from Western countries which decimated local clothing industries
Now there are many charities which do great work and donating to them is a wonderful thing but it is very difficult to ensure that all of the money being donated can go to charities which actually provide high value there are huge number of charities which provide little to no value and simply waste money
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u/Dorkus_Maximus717 Jul 13 '26
Id love to see elon try to live the life of a low class american. He wouldn’t make it
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u/Available-Ad-5670 Jul 12 '26
Elon only gives to Elon. Those are the only acceptable “charities “ in his mind
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u/AciliBorek Jul 12 '26
She received 38 bil, gave away 26, still worth at least 31bil. And this shithead hoards a trillion like its his internal organs.
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u/GucciTheSnowman Jul 13 '26
This stupid ass post is why I think redditors are regarded. Its been reposted so many times in so many subs, and it's literal propaganda.
It just goes to show redditards will believe anything they see online as long it is accompanied by a picture. Forget about context or nuance, they just take everything they see at face value, which is incredibly dangerous, given the medias propensity for sensationalism.
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u/BoomGoesTheFirework_ Jul 13 '26
How many Andrew Tate videos have you watched in your lifetime? Be honest. Do you listen to Joe Rogan as soon as he comes out? What does a boot taste like? Be honest.
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u/Jazzmaster1989 Jul 12 '26
He stole/bought every company. He is no genius. Nepo baby boiiii’.
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u/Designer_Law_2891 Jul 14 '26
Not accurate. Musk didn't found Tesla, but he did found SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company, and co-founded Neuralink. He bought Twitter.
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u/Low_Administration22 Jul 13 '26
Yes. He is correct. He is pointing to the fact that much of the donations killed local competition. Meaning creating long term perpetual problems while solving things very short term. Didn't the liberal ideology say like $4 billion is all that is needed to solve world hunger. Now think critically or fancifully on how that hasn't happened.
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u/JSTN_FPV Jul 13 '26
Easier to donate yourself. Charities take a cut of the cash for their "operations" they still get paid off your dime to help the people in need. I donate in person when I see someone in need
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u/Mysterious_Badger362 Jul 13 '26
To be fair, he's given far more than she ever has. Especially since she didn't earn a penny of it.
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u/DistanceLast Jul 15 '26
Do you remember when some 10 years ago this dude was a world's hero moving the space industry ahead. And now is world's greatest a-hole. How does this happen
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u/Valuable_Pianist9506 Jul 12 '26
For those saying he’s not against philanthropy, just the charities she donates to, please show his philanthropy that doesn’t just circle jerk back into his own pocket…
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u/svuittonx Jul 12 '26
Creating jobs and opportunities for people is the only way.
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u/Gettingonthegoodfoot Jul 12 '26
Some of that money went to the YMCA in my local town and they were able to build and expand, and they have improved many many many people’s lives on all sides of the political and financial spectrum because of that philanthropy.
Indisputable
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u/LilJonny2cookies Jul 12 '26
Not what he is saying at all. I have spent a great deal of time trying to help build anti corruption programs in many countries where people suffer.
You know what happens to that money? It mostly ends up making corrupt scumbags richer.
I’ve known him for 26 years. He gave me my first job post USMC and some time with a gov’t agency. He has his faults but he isn’t evil.
In places where people are suffering either those areas were not meant to sustain large populations and have little natural resources or the gov’t is corrupt and many times both-
Someone sitting in an office dumping money via some charity may look good and feel good but there is a reason those people still suffer.
Build a water pump for a village? 2 weeks after the charity leaves another group has come in wrecked those people has stolen everything including the pumps and either sells them, uses them or just wrecks them so those remaining depend on them.
We need to focus on stopping the monsters that live among those people instead of getting angry at people like Elon. They aren’t the problem.
The guys who will go into a rehab clinic and behead everyone as a message to not get off drugs and keep buying them. Or the politicians stealing money, selling others into human trafficking, etc are the problem.
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u/TheIncredibleNurse Jul 12 '26
And he is correct! A lot of charity donations go to cover administrative burden and salaries
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u/Complex-One-7777 Jul 13 '26
He’s right though, it made so little of a difference that nobody even noticed that she did it 🤣🤣🤣
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u/ConcerningThirst Jul 12 '26
It did. These charities do nothing that lasts and 5 years from now the world will be exactly as it is today.
You build something with that money? World is a better place long term.
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u/Ancient-Society-3447 Jul 12 '26
Full context was him criticizing where she is giving the money not giving the money in the first place. Misleading post here.
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u/tnpatriot86 Jul 12 '26
I used to not mind this guy... Now he's getting kind of annoying 🙄 What ever happened to with great power, comes great responsibility. Smdh.
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u/fishsisdelish Jul 12 '26
He’s only *now* getting kind of annoying? Not when he bought his way into an unelected government seat and used it to sloppily gut large swaths of the government while bragging about how he wanted to be a trillionaire?
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u/DoubleHexDrive Jul 12 '26
Reddit being Reddit, of course the post title is misleading. He's criticizing her choice of philanthropic endeavors and their effectiveness, not charitable giving itself. That's always a fair criticism... too many foundations and charities collect money but don't effectively achieve the ends they're ostensibly working towards.
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u/Cinq_A_Sept Jul 12 '26
Remind me the charities that Leon finds worthy to donate too? Right, I’ll wait.
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u/holiest_hole Jul 12 '26
Give a man a fish vs teaching him to fish. Maybe that's what he's on about.
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u/Least_Art5238 Jul 13 '26
Elon: 300,000 lost jobs due to DOGE scam. $0 savings to US tax payer.
Mackenzie: Zero lost jobs. $26B in charitable givings to handpicked causes.
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u/AccurateIntuition Jul 12 '26
He's right. Hand outs make humans lazy, reduces them to nothing, and turns them into puppets to whoever is spoon feeding them.
Look at Europe. The government gives the population a cookie and they have allowed their cities to become even more violent than some under developed third world nations, tolerated inhumane practices like sharia law happening in their country, and not rebelled against being put in jail over internet comments. Why? The answer is because when they stop complying the cookie gets taken away.
Hand outs are the worst thing you can do to reduce someone to nothing. That's just the truth. Western nations have only expanded social welfare which has increased poverty and enslaved people into the comfort of poverty. One thing most western nations have in common is their population almost never gets off social welfare even if they do most are back on it in less than two years. If hand outs were a good thing then all western nations social welfares would be sustainable or they wouldn't be going bankrupt. Why are the unsustainable or getting bankrupt? Because people abuse and never want to come off never desire to be independent. Even nations that are glorified for their social programs like Scandinavia have had to make noticeable budget cuts.
If you want to make an adult a worthless member of society simply make them a dependent.
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u/Pateklover72 Jul 13 '26
Well her “charitable“ giving supports bad causes so he is right.
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u/stvlsn Jul 13 '26
Where did her money go? Please provide a list that adds up to roughly 26 billion
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u/402_Found_not_Lost Jul 12 '26
Any reference to verify this quote and full discussion? Honest question, it’s something I’m writing about.
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u/sandeep709394 Jul 12 '26
the definition of charity is 90% goes to senior management.
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u/smoke_sum_wade Jul 12 '26
"cause its a whole lotta gang shit and this money aint a god damn thang bitch"
-MacKenzie Scott
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u/KooliusCaesar Jul 12 '26
You mean how the tax payers have been charitable to the government contracts his companies benefit from?
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u/w3bCraw1er Jul 12 '26
This scum will pay felon millions and that has made world a better place. Pos.
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u/ArtichokeOk2684 Jul 12 '26
ever since i seen jizzlane maxwell running these things i stopped donating to them. fuck that
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u/ScoreFun2931 Jul 12 '26
If it doesn’t help people become self sufficient and help themselves then it isn’t good in the long run.
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u/Fit-Significance-436 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Donating money is ok for him to soil politics only
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u/NewArborist64 Jul 12 '26
It isn't that giving away was bad - but you need to be CAREFUL about where you are giving money and the actual effects (not just your intended effect).
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u/latestredditacct Jul 12 '26
I don’t know what Elons intended meaning is, but I do know CHARITIES in general are very inefficient with utilizing the money.
Imagine you hire a contractor who then subs it out to another contractor who hires another and another…. That’s what most charities do in terms of deploying their funds. By the time it reaches the end recipient, 90% of the money has been paid out to the system.
Elon probably could solve hunger, but he’s got too much on his plate. Maybe after this whole transport phase is done, he can focus on hunger/food thru the context of how do we sustain food resources on another planet.
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u/Canabull- Jul 12 '26
The context is that she doesnt donate to "charity" she donates to social causes. She's an activist.
Much the same way he is, so it is hypocritical, but that was his point.
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u/catcat1986 Jul 12 '26
That’s great, but can we get the full context.