Elon Musk - The world's first Trillionaire

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• Lower Secondary (Key Stage 3)
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Introduction

Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire. Use this interactive lesson to explore the implications of one - controversial - man holding all this wealth.

Elon Musk -

The World's First Trillionaire!

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Yes

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No

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A little

Have you heard about this?

What do you already know about

Elon Musk, the world's first trillionaire?

How do you feel about this news?

Learning Objectives

• Explain how an initial public offering (IPO) works and how it affects an entrepreneur's wealth.

• Identify why opinions differ on extreme wealth and inequality.

• Share your opinion on the influence of billionaires (and trillionaires) on politics and society.

What's going on?

What?

Elon Musk has been officially declared the very first trillionaire. This means he has a fortune of at least 1,000 billion dollars.

Why?

SpaceX has 'gone public'. Everyone can buy a share of the rocket company. Many people wanted that! Thus, those shares of SpaceX suddenly became very valuable.

How?

Elon Musk personally owns the majority of the company's shares. As those shares have become incredibly expensive, he himself became the richest man on earth.

Musk is now individually wealthier than

the poorest 46% of the world's population combined.

How do you feel about this news?

Probeer op een oordeelloze manier het gesprek met de klas aan te gaan.
Meningen mogen verschillen, maar luisteren naar elkaar blijft een must. Probeer daarin ook zelf bewust te blijven van jouw standpunt en niet aan

Background

• SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk, requires funding to pursue missions to the Moon and Mars.

• As a result, SpaceX went public. On the stock market, people can buy small shares of the company. Many people are interested, so these shares quickly increased in value. SpaceX raised a record sum of 65 billion euros.

• Because his company has suddenly become so valuable, Elon Musk has become even wealthier. The money isn't in his bank account, but his companies are worth that much.

• All that wealth gives him power. He can influence many people and companies with it, including political figures. For instance, Elon Musk supports President Trump, but does this mean he can also tell the president what to do?

• Many people find it concerning that so much power is concentrated in one person and that he can exert such influence.

It has been calculated that Elon Musk earned 1 million dollars per minute over the past year, even while he was asleep!

Imagine that you earned 1 million pounds per minute.

What would you buy after 5 minutes of sleep?

Why do

you think this is important news?

Waar kun je aan denken?

Grote gevolgen

Veel mensen betrokken

Opvallend / uitzonderlijk

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For Politics and Democracy

The question may arise as to who will make the decisions in the future? The elected president or the person who pays the party the most? This can put democracy under pressure.

For the ordinary citizen and

society

The gap between rich and poor is becoming increasingly clear. This can feel unfair. Why does one person have so much money?! But the technology that Musk develops is useful for everyone and creates many jobs.

What does this mean for…

For Space Exploration and Science

SpaceX can quickly build rockets and develop new technology with all that money. Possibly even faster than organisations like NASA.

What could be a consequence?

Core Concepts

Trillionaire

Someone with a wealth of at least one trillion (1,000,000,000,000). This is a thousand times more than a billionaire.

Initial Public Offering

The moment a company offers its shares for sale on the stock market (the exchange) for the first time, allowing anyone to invest in it.

Share

Proof that you are a co-owner of a company in a very small part. If the company increases in value, your share also rises in value.

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Wealth Inequality

The uneven distribution of assets and money among different groups of people

in society (for example, between the very richest and the poorest).

What question do you still have about this news?

News Focus lessons - short lessons on current events