Musk's $1T pay creates a split screen on wealth in America

Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a plan that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire, two days after New Yorkers elected a tax-the-rich candidate as their next mayor.

- Rebecca F. Elliott, Jack Ewing and Reid J. Epstein

Demonstrators hold signs and shout slogans during the "Tyrant Diner" protest against Elon Musk and calling for a boycott of Tesla, outside of the Tesla Diner and Drive-in Restaurant and Supercharger on Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles earlier this year.

(AFP FILE)

These discrete moments offered strikingly different lessons about America and who deserves how much of its wealth.

At Tesla, based in the Austin, Texas, area, shareholders have largely bought into a winner-takes-all version of capitalism, agreeing by a wide margin to give Musk shares worth almost $1 trillion if the company under his management achieves ambitious financial and operational goals over the next decade.

But halfway across the country, in the home to Wall Street, Zohran Mamdani's victory served as a reminder of the frustrations many Americans have with an economic system that has left them struggling to afford basics like food, housing and child care.

These are vastly different arenas, to be sure. But that split-screen reality speaks to a larger divide in American business and politics.

On one side are billionaires like Musk and their many supporters, including President Donald Trump, who see the financial success of a small group of executives as something to be celebrated and emulated.

On the other are progressives like Mamdani, a democratic socialist, who are calling for something more akin to the social welfare systems of Western Europe. Mamdani campaigned on using higher taxes on businesses and the wealthy to pay for universal child care and free buses promises that helped him win a resounding victory against two more conservative candidates.