(2% of Elon Musk's wealth could help solve world hunger, says director of UN food scarcity, CNN organization)
On Tuesday, October 26, the director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme, David Beasley, said in a CNN’s Connect the World aired interview, that a small group of very wealthy people could help solve world hunger. He mentioned that billionaires, specifically Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk (the world’s two richest men), need to "step up now, on a one-time basis" to donate at least $6 billion which could help 42 million people.
According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk has a net worth of nearly $289 billion, which means that the director is only asking him to donate 2% of his fortune. Beasly said, “I’m not picking on them. I'm saying, 'Great, you made money. Please, please help share right now in a one-time crisis."
On Sunday, October 31, Musk responded to Beasley’s comments by saying, “If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6 billion will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it. But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.”
Exchanges were still made between the men through Twitter, but many people started questioning whether this one solution will end world hunger. According to David Laborde, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, hunger is very difficult to track with just metrics, and that there can’t be an accurate assessment of how much it costs to fix a problem since it may vary by location and their needs. He also mentioned that there were other approaches the director could have approached instead of “billionaire bashing”.
On the other hand, The Center for Effective Philanthropy, President Phil Buchanan, believes that putting public pressure on the wealthy could be beneficial if people are taking it seriously, unlike Musk did. “I don’t really know why you’d want to sort of troll someone on Twitter about it who’s asking you to step up, as opposed to engaging in a serious and thoughtful conversation about how you could actually make a difference,” he said. One of his expectations is that he expects to see more public pressure on billionaires who have seen an increase in their wealth during the pandemic.
Both of these arguments are fair assessments on whether public pressure should be put on those who have enough wealth to share among the needed. On one hand, it is true that there can’t be an accurate assessment of how much money it would take to help such a problem as world hunger, but it would surely make a big difference if a billionaire would donate a percentage of his wealth. Instead of trying to explore space or creating self-driving cars, these people should also try and focus on helping those who are suffering malnutrition due to the unfair society they live in. However, it is fair to understand Musk’s request that it should be an open-source accounting since there are various experiences all around the world which show that people can not always be trusted. Many of the governments in different countries take advantage of this unequal society in order to profit from all the exterior help. Instead of helping their own people, they steal the money without having any consequence due to the control they have. This creates a greater class division and those of the lower social status are the ones who suffer the most.
Even though these are just small justifications for both sides, there are many other factors that should be taken into account when dealing with a situation of this magnitude. Many people all around the world are getting richer every day and some of them do not seem to show a care in the world about others. There should be pressure put by higher authorities on these people in order to stop the increase of social inequality. Not only that, but these higher authorities should come together and try to find a solution in which all the money is used to help feed those families who can’t win against their society. For this to happen many things need to occur, but we are positive that if people start changing their views on money and start to understand that we humans need to work as a team, some of the world's problems could be solved in the future or at least show progress.