1,000,000,000,000 reasons we need Wealth Taxes now

Elon Musk has just become the world’s first trillionaire, after spending the last year gaining roughly $1m every single minute. One man now holds more wealth than nearly half the planet combined. But despite what billionaire‑owned media might claim, this is not a success story.

No one can amass a trillion dollars, or even a billion dollars through genius or grit. Musk’s wealth, like all the ultra-wealthy comes from grotesque hoarding: raiding public funds, ripping off taxpayers, refusing to pay their fair share, exploiting people and the planet, and using their growing fortunes to warp democracy, buy influence, and rewrite the rules in their favour. Musk’s trillionaire status should be a warning.

How much is $1 Trillion?

$1 trillion  is an amount so vast it breaks the imagination. If Musk spent £1 million a day, every day, it would take him 2,740 years to run out. But far from a sign of a thriving global economy, it’s the central obstacle to building a better world. So long as 75% of the world’s wealth is hoarded by just 56,000 people— who wouldn’t even fill Old Trafford— we will struggle to find the money necessary to invest in improving life for the other 8.3 billion (the 99.9999%). 

But a major new report from the World Inequality Lab shows it doesn’t have to be this way. Authored by 45 leading economists, scientists and policy experts, it lays out a clear roadmap for a fairer world: higher living standards, lower inequality, and real action on the climate crisis. Step one is unambiguous: tax extreme wealth.

A 10% tax on trillionaires (yes, just Musk) would raise enough to end global extreme poverty for a year, lifting over 800 million people above the extreme poverty line. And even after paying it, Elon wouldn’t struggle to buy World Cup tickets, in fact he’d still have enough money left to buy football— or at least the 30 biggest football clubs in the world ($87 billion). Oh, and every house in Scotland ($731 billion). And even after that he’d still be the world’s 25th richest man, with more personal wealth ($82 billion) than the GDP of Bolivia. 

How do you become a trillionaire?

For a start, they’re exceptionally good at extracting cash from the public. While billionaire‑owned media demonise people receiving social security, it’s the mega‑rich who receive the biggest handouts. The world’s first trillionaire has certainly received more than his share, with an estimated $38 billion in US government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits, often coming at critical times for accelerating his businesses. 

And it goes far beyond grants and subsidies. The road to Musk’s success is paved with public money. Musk isn’t a scientist or an engineer, yet his fortune comes from a string of tech giants and groundbreaking technologies— PayPal, Neuralink, SpaceX, Tesla. The teams of actual scientists and engineers are only possible because of public investment in education, research, infrastructure, and social security. But whilst Musk benefits from public expenditure, he’s mastered the art of keeping the profits private. Tesla paid $0 in US federal income tax in 2024 and 2025, despite revenues of over $8 billion and a share price that surged almost 400%, a key driver of Musk’s personal wealth explosion.

And it’s not just US taxpayers Elon’s been ripping off. Tesla UK owed just £4.8m corporation tax for its 2024 UK business operations, by somehow turning over £2 billion, but recording just £19 million in profit. It’s remarkable that businesses like this with just a 1% profit margin, and a 25% tax on those profits are able to make their owner so obscenely wealthy. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that two Tesla offices— one in the Netherlands with no employees, and one in Singapore that sold just 6,633 cars— somehow generated $18bn in untaxable profits in 2024 and 2025.

& keep it that way...

The other thing the billionaire class excels at is influencing politics. Musk’s vast wealth allowed him to buy Twitter (now X) for $44bn— not for profit (it was loss-making when he bought it and continues to make very little if anything), but for power. Since his takeover, the platform’s algorithms, moderation policies and AI systems have increasingly amplified extreme far‑right content. He’s used the platform to stoke division, encourage hatred and fan the flames of far-right civil unrest. X is a global media network, reshaped to suit the worldview of one man, and now influences the political attitudes of millions.

Musk has used his influence to boost his preferred politicians — previously Donald Trump in the US, and initially Nigel Farage in the UK, although more recently he’s favoured the more extreme Restore Party, and far‑right agitator Tommy Robinson (who met with Elon’s dad in Moscow this week). He also gave the Trump campaign nearly $300m in direct funding. The return on investment? A seat at the table (until they fell out), a wave of corporate tax breaks that saved him millions, and the quiet disappearance of dozens of federal investigations into his companies (everything from worker’s safety, discrimination and harassment to illegal deals with Russia).

This is a familiar cycle: the mega-rich fund politicians. Politicians shield the mega-rich from accountability, slash their taxes and keep their loopholes open. The mega-rich get richer. And with that wealth, they buy even more influence. It’s a feedback loop that corrodes democracy and deepens inequality.

That’s why the route to a better world starts with curbing mega‑wealth. Not just because taxing extreme wealth is the only way to unlock the investment needed to tackle the climate crisis, rebuild our communities, and restore our public services, but because a world with trillionaires is a world where democracy bends to money, not people. We don’t have to accept this. We can choose a different path.