My Take | How Elon Musk and his merry band of billionaires run the United States
China follows a different system, but perhaps America should look into why the richest Chinese do not pose a problem similar to those in the US
If you ever question why Beijing is wise to have kept China’s richest in line, just take a look at those unbound American billionaires who run the current government under Donald Trump. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and his small circle of multibillionaires have an outsize influence on the public policies and agendas of the United States. They are practically a law unto themselves.
Last week, Bloomberg dropped a bombshell on Tesla, of which Musk is CEO. “This reporting turned up at least 15 deaths in a dozen incidents over the past decade in which occupants or rescuers were unable to open the doors of a Tesla that had crashed and caught fire,” the report said. “The figures represent a small fraction of the hundreds of fatal electric vehicle crashes over that period, but the numbers are growing. More than half of the deaths in Bloomberg’s analysis occurred since November 2024.”
The real figure is probably underestimated, according to the report, which focuses on how Musk overruled safety concerns of his own engineers by insisting on having electronically powered doors which could stop working on some Tesla models in a crash. “There are no comprehensive, publicly available statistics from any state or federal agency on how many people have been trapped by inoperative doors and subsequently died. Gathering reliable data is complicated,” it said.
Tesla and Musk did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment. Instead, Musk went on the offensive – on Canada’s healthcare system, of course! He lashed out after a father died in a hospital emergency ward following an eight-hour wait in Edmonton, Alberta.
“When the government does medical care, it is about as good as the DMV,” he posted on X, previously Twitter, which he controls. I had to look up what DMV stood for. Did he mean the “department of motor vehicles” or “death of motor vehicle” owner? The latter would be too ironic in light of the Bloomberg report.
Musk, who has Canadian citizenship, also attached a video clip to his post which showed the man’s wife recapping his death. Prashant Sreekuma was taken to emergency after experiencing chest pains on December 22. His son reportedly told staff the pain was “15 out of 10”. He was given Tylenol to ease his pain.