Grammy award winner Billie Eilish received the Music Innovator Award on Oct. 29. In her acceptance speech, Eilish had an important question for the wealthiest in the room: “If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?” Her statement followed late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert announcing that Eilish had given $11.5 million to charity. Eilish’s statement has drummed up conversation on the ethics of wealth and philanthropy. Many are realizing that there is no reason for solely one person to possess so much wealth.
According to her Forbes profile, Billie Eilish made a revenue of $53 million in 2020, making her donation 21% of her income. Elon Musk’s organization, the Musk Foundation, only donated $160 million to charity, which is less than 1% of the $9.4 billion the organization had at the time. The richest man in the world, on track to become the world’s first trillionaire, should not be outdone by a 23-year-old singer. If Eilish is able to donate over 20% of her income, nothing should be in the way of Musk topping that. Yet, he does not.
Musk and fellow billionaires, however, have never been known for their philanthropy. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, came under fire recently for failing to properly compensate workers. Tara Jones, an Amazon employee, wrote to Jeff Bezos about being shortchanged $90 of her paycheck, causing her to become behind on bills. Because of this, the New York Times launched an investigation into Amazon, finding that “for at least a year and a half — including during periods of record profit — Amazon had been shortchanging.” Additionally, Amazon received citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 2023, reporting that working conditions for Amazon employees were unsafe.
On top of exploiting workers, billionaires hoard their wealth in a plethora of ways. Some of them just like to ignore the law. U.S. President Donald Trump is an example of a billionaire familiar with cutting corners. The Trump Organization was convicted of federal tax fraud in 2022 after having already been investigated for fraud multiple times. Though Trump and his family claimed to know nothing about the company’s actions, many of the fraudulent documents bore Trump’s signature. This tax scheme had lasted into his first presidency, NPR reported.
The horrible mistreatment which built the wealth these people hold is appalling, to say the least. It takes a special kind of greed to feel comfortable eating steak with silver cutlery while their employees struggle to pay bills.
Musk’s income is so ridiculously large that he could end world hunger 68 times. He could rebuild Gaza 7 times.
But that will not happen.
That is not how billionaires operate, and it never has been. If this had been the case, Tesla would pay their employees, and Amazon would make sure its work environments are safe. People should never allow abuse of the working class. Other celebrities should join Eilish’s cause, speak out and donate money to causes they believe in. To allow wealth to sit untouched when it could be used to help so many is beyond immoral.
