The "Charity" of Elon Musk

Nobody who has followed Elon Musk’s rampage through the world of business, social media, and politics would be surprised to learn that his approach to charitable giving has been a bit, well, ill-considered. Heedless. Self-serving. Disrespectful of the norms and the rules. Certainly infuriating.

And Musk’s charitable impact? Only a bit more than negligible.

Musk’s charitable misdoings have come to our attention thanks to a shocking-but-not-surprising New York Times story by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Fahrenthold and his colleague Ryan Mac. For those of us who have been writing and speaking about how some of the wealthiest Americans take unconscionable advantage of the charitable tax laws, it’s instructive when the single wealthiest person of all shows just how off the rails high-end philanthropy has become.

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