Capitalism has hit a milestone.

Following the blockbuster IPO of SpaceX — a Frankenstein’s corporate monster of the rocket company, xAI, X (née Twitter), and Starlink — Elon Musk’s fortune now exceeds $1.1 trillion. That’s the equivalent of four Jeff Bezoses, or the combined wealth of the world’s poorest 46 percent (3.8 billion people). Since 2025, Musk has become $1 million richer every single minute.

It’s easy to feel appalled by this news. After all, while capitalists’ profits soar, the working class is bearing the cost of growing crises, whether environmental destruction, ongoing genocide, or global wars.

And Musk, a far-right provocateur, is a uniquely disgusting figure. He spends his time spouting bigotry on X, a platform being sued for producing nonconsensual deepfakes of minors. His other public company, Tesla, is being sued for racism and retaliation, and he’s a known corporate tyrant and union buster.

But Elon Musk is just a symptom of capitalism, a system that concentrates wealth in the hands of a few. Like all capitalists, Musk hasn’t earned his wealth — he’s rich because he exploits the workers at his companies. He also benefits from the financial speculation endemic to capitalism: a third of his net worth comes from Tesla, a company with an astronomical market capitalization despite selling just a fraction of the cars of other automakers.

Wall Street is not a footnote here. In addition to being the world’s largest-ever IPO, SpaceX will join some of the world’s most important stock indexes, like the Nasdaq-100 and FTSE Russell, at unprecedented speed. This means that workers who have retirement plans, like 401(k)s, are invested in Musk’s company, whether we like it or not. Capitalists have hitched their wagons to Elon’s rocket, and with it, our livelihoods.

And capitalists’ wealth is intimately tied to power. By accumulating vast fortunes, they are able to wield the levers of the state to their advantage. Musk even finagled himself into the U.S. government: During his brief stint as President Trump’s unelected “First Buddy,” he inflicted deep attacks on federal workers through austerity and extensive layoffs. Across the world, he has supported the rise of the Far Right, like the AfD in Germany and Restore UK.

This is why capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. And it’s why simply taxing the rich won’t solve the crises caused by capitalists.

Instead, we need to expropriate the rich, and organize against the system that inevitably creates this extreme wealth and exploitation. Workers, not Elon Musk, make the world run. We can use this power to build a system run by and for the masses, not for profit.

The post Trillionaire Elon Musk Is a Morbid Symptom of Capitalism appeared first on Left Voice.

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