In the morning news on November 1, Beijing time, it was reported that a few days ago, the director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) David Beasley told the media that a small number of super-rich people, such as Rutes La CEO Elon Musk can contribute to solving the problem of world hunger with only a small part of their net assets.
Due to the recent rise in Tesla’s stock price, Musk’s current net worth has reached $311 billion, making him the richest person in the world today.
In an interview with the media, Beasley urged billionaires to “stand up now.” He also pointed out that even using only 2% of Musk’s current net assets can solve the world‘s hunger problem. This is roughly equivalent to about 6 billion U.S. dollars. The director of the United Nations Food Program said “US$6 billion can help 42 million people. If we don’t help them, they will really lose their lives. It’s not complicated.”
If the World Food Program can accurately describe on Twitter how US$6 billion will solve the problem of world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock and do it now. —-Elon Musk (@elonMusk) October 31, 2021
Musk has now responded to Beasley’s remarks. In response to a post on Twitter, Musk emphasized that the United Nations World Food Program actually raised US$8.4 billion in 2020. He pointed out that if the World Food Program can accurately explain how US$6 billion solves the problem of world hunger, he now Would prefer to sell some TSLA shares. This is a key point, because most of Musk’s net assets are tied to his majority stake in Tesla. This means that if Musk wants to have $6 billion in cash, he must sell his Tesla stock.
However, Musk put forward some conditions to the director of the United Nations Food Program. In a subsequent tweet, the Tesla CEO pointed out that the United Nations World Food Program must be open to open source accounting. In this way, the public can see exactly how the $6 billion will be used and how these funds will effectively end world hunger.
But the agency must accept open source accounting so that the public can see exactly how the funds are being used. —-Elon Musk (@elonMusk) October 31, 2021
The current situation is that in the interview, the director of the United Nations Food Program did not really explain whether the US$6 billion can permanently solve the hunger problem, or if this amount is only enough to solve some temporary problems. After all, this is a huge plan. In the face of this long-standing problem, $6 billion is only a small number.
Many countries spend much more on the military than on food. In fiscal year 2020, the United States spent $725 billion on national defense. The $6 billion proposed by Beasley only accounts for 0.8% of the U.S. military budget. The United States will also spend a total of 13.3 billion U.S. dollars to build the USS Ford, which is the most advanced aircraft carrier in the United States to date. If the United Nations Food Program Director’s estimate is accurate enough, solving the world’s hunger problem would be equivalent to about half of the cost of an aircraft carrier in the U.S. Armed Forces.
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