Two weeks ago, Billie Eilish used her acceptance speech at the WSJ Innovator Awards to call out billionaires for hoarding their wealth when “people need empathy and help more than, kind of, ever, especially in our country.” In the short period of time since the event, Elon Musk has made an ambitious stride towards becoming the first trillionaire following an unrealistic pay package deal from Tesla. Musk wasn’t in the room when Eilish told the richest people there, “No hate, but yeah, give your money away.” Still, she has some choice words for him.
On her Instagram Stories, Eilish reposted a series of infographics from the activist movement My Voice, My Choice that shared ways for Musk to redistribute his trillionaire wealth. While the tech giant hasn’t technically reached that unprecedented threshold (doing so would require Tesla to increase its market cap six times over to reach $8.5 trillion), the graphics still offer realistic options for any person with a net worth as bloated as his.
“Fucking pathetic pussy bitch coward,” Eilish wrote on her Instagram Story after sharing the organization’s suggestions for how he could aid in combating humanitarian and environmental crises.
Musk, one post read, could end world hunger within five years by putting $40 billion towards the effort each year through 2030. He could also provide safe, clean water universally for just $140 billion per year for seven years. He could also save more than 10,000 endangered species for the low price of $1-2 billion per year. And for just $53.2 billion, he could rebuild Gaza and other areas of the West Bank destroyed in the region. Needless to say, Musk likely won’t do any of these things — which is the root of Eilish’s follow-up post.
At the WSJ Innovator Awards, it was announced that Eilish would donate $11.5 million from the Hit Me Hard and Soft tour to various organizations and charities. “There’s a few people in here who have a lot more money than me,” she said at the time. “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?”
In 2024, the anti-poverty group Oxfam published a report highlighting the extensive growth in wealth inequality since the start of the pandemic in 2020. “A huge concentration of global corporate and monopoly power is exacerbating inequality economy-wide,” the report read. “Through squeezing workers, dodging tax, privatizing the state and spurring climate breakdown, corporations are driving inequality and acting in the service of delivering ever-greater wealth to their rich owners.”
The report issued a suggestion of its own. “To end extreme inequality,” it read, “governments must radically redistribute the power of billionaires and corporations back to ordinary people.”
