ELON MUSK CAN MAKE ALL OF US BILLIONAIRES

By the most recent valuations, our X landlord is said to be worth a whopping - mouth-watering, record-setting - $852 billion. Across several fora, I have encountered a puzzling claim, or should I say a daring challenge, boldly stated as follows:

“There are 8 billion people in the world. Elon Musk can give everyone $1 billion each and still have over $844 billion left. He can make all of us billionaires - he just won’t.” 😆

First, the arithmetic is pathetically wrong, and the logic behind the maths is unforgivably flawed.

If Elon’s enormous wealth were evenly distributed among the maths is unforgivably flawed.

If Elon’s enormous wealth were evenly distributed among the world’s 8 billion people, each person would receive about $107 - and I doubt that makes anyone rich, including Elon himself.

But let us set aside this arithmetic paralysis and examine the claim hypothetically.

Assume that by some magic, everyone on earth suddenly receives a bank alert of $1 billion.

Won’t the world be better for it?

What could possibly go wrong with everyone being wealthy?

With poverty “eradicated”, won’t the world finally become a happier place?

Let me answer briefly and plainly:

The world needs the poor more than it needs the rich.

Now, let us talk economics.

SETTING THE SCALE

Current global GDP: ≈ $105 trillion

$1 billion × 8 billion people: = $8 quintillion.

That figure alone already tells you a shock is coming.

IMMEDIATE REACTION (FIRST FEW HOURS–DAYS)

1. Money instantly loses meaning

The most critical function of money is scarcity.

Money works precisely because not everyone has too much of it.

Its value is relative.

Therefore, if everyone becomes a billionaire:

No one needs your money

No one is impressed by your money

No one is motivated by money

Money ceases to coordinate human behavior.

2. Prices explode overnight

(Hyperinflation of terrifying proportions)

With far too much money chasing very few goods, prices respond immediately.

Bread is no longer ₦2,000 or $5.

Sellers know everyone can pay anything.

You will not buy bread for N2,000 again - no one is selling at that price. Try N3,000,000.

House rents, even in villages, will not go lower than N1 billion.

A 2004 Toyota Corolla may cost ₦2 billion, on a discount day.

This is no longer inflation. It is worse - It is the price collapse of currency.

Recall the 1970s, when the Gowon administration paid multiple months of salary arrears at once. The Nigerian economy shook violently - and some of the aftershocks are with us till today.

SHORT-TERM MARKET CONSEQUENCES (WEEKS)

3. Markets freeze, then break

Stock markets halt trading

Bonds lose meaning

Currencies collapse simultaneously

Why?

Markets depend on differential wealth.

If everyone can buy everything, price discovery dies.

There is no investor class.

No consumer class.

Everyone is the same.

4. Labor collapses

With $1 billion in every pocket, who returns to their former job?

Ask yourself honestly:

Would you wake up at 5 a.m. to paint walls, treat patients, or sit behind a desk counting fellow billionaires’ deposits if you had $1 billion?

Most people wouldn’t.

So:

Farmers stop farming

Truck drivers stop driving

Health workers stop saving lives

Garbage collection stops

Dangote may have to drive his own tankers - his employees are now as rich as he is.

There is money, yes - but nothing to buy, because no one is producing.

MEDIUM-TERM EFFECTS (MONTHS)

5. Shortages everywhere

Food rots on farms without harvesters

Power grids fail without technicians

Water systems break

Patients die in hospitals without doctors

Supply chains collapse

The paradox:

Everyone is rich, yet everything is scarce.

What follows is total systemic collapse.

6. RETURN TO HIERARCHY

Society eventually reorganizes itself around:

Barter

Force

Skill-based status

Control of essentials

Eventually:

New currencies emerge

Old money is abandoned

Inequality returns - harsher than before. Because inequality is not caused by money.