By Kalu Onyemaechi
World’s richest man Elon Musk, on Sunday, challenged the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to make clear how 2 per cent of his wealth will solve world hunger.
He promised to immediately sell off Tesla stock if they can be convincing in describing their method to achieving this feat.
“If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it”, Musk tweeted.
“But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent”, Musk added.
Earlier, American politician and Executive Director of the UN WFP David Beasley, in an interview on CNN’s Connect the World with Becky Anderson that aired Tuesday, cited specifically the world’s two richest men, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. He said that Billionaires needed to “step up now, on a one-time basis”.
“$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated,” Beasley added.
Tesla chief executive Musk has a net worth of nearly $289 billion, according to Bloomberg, meaning that Beasley is asking for a donation of just 2% of his fortune. The net worth of US billionaires has almost doubled since the pandemic began, standing at $5.04 trillion in October, according to progressive groups Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness.
Musk had commented under Dr. Eli David’s (a researcher) reaction to Beasley’s claim.
“Fact check: 2% of @elonmusk’s wealth is $6B. In 2020 the UN World Food Program (WFP) raised $8.4B. How come it didn’t ‘solve world hunger’? “, David said.
