Tesla shareholders approved a plan to grant Elon Musk shares worth nearly $1 trillion if he meets ambitious goals, including vastly expanding the company’s stock market valuation.
Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a plan that could make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire, two days after New Yorkers elected a tax-the-rich candidate as their next mayor.
These discrete moments offered strikingly different lessons about America and who deserves how much of its wealth.
At Tesla, based in the Austin, Texas, area, shareholders have largely bought into a winner-takes-all version of capitalism, agreeing by a wide margin to give Mr. Musk shares worth almost a trillion dollars if the company under his management achieves ambitious financial and operational goals over the next decade.
But halfway across the country, in the home to Wall Street, Zohran Mamdani’s victory served as a reminder of the frustrations many Americans have with an economic system that has left them struggling to afford basics like food, housing and child care.
These are vastly different arenas, to be sure. But that split-screen reality speaks to a larger divide in American business and politics. On one side are billionaires like Mr. Musk and their many supporters, including President Trump, who see the financial success of a small group of executives as something to be celebrated and emulated.
On the other are progressives like Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, who are calling for something more akin to the social welfare systems of Western Europe. Mr. Mamdani campaigned on using higher taxes on businesses and the wealthy to pay for universal child care and free buses — promises that helped him win a resounding victory against two more conservative candidates.