If Elon Musk wanted to go dollar-for-dollar with every ad dollar spent in the US, on every congressional race, mayor’s race, and, of course, every presidential candidate from the moment they’re just considering running to the day of the election, he could do it without even noticing. Even if he converted all his shares to cash and put them in an ultra-safe savings account that only paid 5% per year, he’d be bringing in $50 billion per year. So, a $18 billion election campaign would be a small fraction of his yearly income (especially given that it only happens every 4 years). In fact, if he saved up for 4 years and had $200b to spend every time there was a presidential election, he could outspend everybody else by a ratio of 10:1 without difficulty.
Now, what do you think he’s actually going to spend to make sure that there are never any laws passed that threaten his wealth? And, if he doesn’t think he’s going to get the results he wants with his political spending alone, what else might he do with tens of billions per year outside the political system?
Remember, this is just his “pocket money”, this isn’t even dipping into his wealth so much that it actually might go down year-to-year.
Here’s where it’s really dangerous. The spending in the 2020 election cycle in the US was the highest in history. The $18 billion spent was more than twice as much as the $8.5 billion in 2016 and even more than the $14.8 billion from 2024.
If Elon Musk wanted to go dollar-for-dollar with every ad dollar spent in the US, on every congressional race, mayor’s race, and, of course, every presidential candidate from the moment they’re just considering running to the day of the election, he could do it without even noticing. Even if he converted all his shares to cash and put them in an ultra-safe savings account that only paid 5% per year, he’d be bringing in $50 billion per year. So, a $18 billion election campaign would be a small fraction of his yearly income (especially given that it only happens every 4 years). In fact, if he saved up for 4 years and had $200b to spend every time there was a presidential election, he could outspend everybody else by a ratio of 10:1 without difficulty.
Now, what do you think he’s actually going to spend to make sure that there are never any laws passed that threaten his wealth? And, if he doesn’t think he’s going to get the results he wants with his political spending alone, what else might he do with tens of billions per year outside the political system?
Remember, this is just his “pocket money”, this isn’t even dipping into his wealth so much that it actually might go down year-to-year.