The concept of Musk’s wealth being tied to "stolen" labor hours from future generations raises an interesting question about economic and societal opportunity costs. If we think of wealth not just as an accumulation of resources but as a concentration of influence over labor and capital, Musk’s control over vast financial and technological resources does impact how those resources might otherwise be used.

Using an estimate based on Musk’s net worth, which fluctuates around $250 billion (although it varies widely), let’s frame this in terms of labor. If we assumed an average global wage of around $10 per hour (to balance different economies), Musk’s net worth could represent roughly 25 billion labor hours. That’s about 12 million people working full-time for a year.

Of course, this is a simplified approximation. It doesn’t account for how wealth actually circulates and reinvests in the economy through infrastructure, job creation, and technological innovation, nor does it factor in the energy cost of how this wealth is generated. But thinking in these terms can help illustrate the broader impact of concentrated wealth: it redirects resources and decision-making away from distributed, localized use toward a few centralized hands, affecting how time, labor, and future opportunities are allocated.