Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Aug 04, 2025

Opinion | The worst part about Time naming Elon Musk its "Person of the Year"

Opinion | The worst part about Time naming Elon Musk its "Person of the Year"

The magazine says Musk deserves its top honor because of his bold vision for the future. But is it the future we need?

After another year of pandemic mitigation measures, vaccine rollouts and health care inequities, Time magazine announced its Person of the Year for 2021. Last year’s selection of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was, arguably, a snub of the health care workers who have spent the last two years protecting the U.S. — and the world — from 1Covid1-19. But instead of remedying that oversight this year, Time decided to make it much, much worse by selecting the richest man in the world for its 2021 honor: Elon Musk.

Time’s writeup claims Musk is “easily cast as a hubristic supervillain,” but it argues that such a negative framing doesn’t capture how he’s using his wealth and power to reinvigorate the U.S.’s space program and build an electric vehicle company. Like many other profiles of Musk that seek to appear even-handed, the feature outlines some of the challenges Musk and his companies have faced: the lawsuits alleging a deep culture of racism at Tesla, reports of burnout culture at SpaceX and growing scrutiny of Autopilot, just to name a few. But ultimately these issues are sidelined — the price to pay for a billionaire “genius” who is creating our collective future.

The magazine is quite explicit about this. “The man from the future where technology makes all things possible is a throwback to our glorious industrial past,” it states, “before America stagnated and stopped producing anything but rules, restrictions, limits, obstacles and Facebook.” In short, we need Elon Musk to rescue us, regardless of the cost. But is that the truth?



In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Silicon Valley became the beacon of hope for the U.S. economy. Tech’s gospel — “move fast and break things” — was soon applied to any industry with the expectation it would produce positive outcomes. (It should go without saying that the last few years have taught us otherwise.)

After he founded SpaceX in 2002 and took over as CEO of Tesla in 2008, Musk was perfectly placed to become one of the figureheads of tech’s American renewal. He graced the covers of countless magazines, was the subject of glowing profiles and was favorably compared to Tony Stark, the billionaire arms manufacturer and Iron Man superhero played by Robert Downey Jr. in Marvel’s movies. Musk even made a cameo in the 2010 sequel.

Musk was credited with creating the electric vehicle industry, even though major automakers were working on their own electric vehicles and the government was trying to spur Tesla’s growth — including by financing the company’s expansion through a $465 million loan in 2009.

Meanwhile, SpaceX was built on the idea that humanity should colonize Mars, and Musk worked backward from that premise to determine what could make it a reality. In the process, SpaceX has been accused of overworking and underpaying its staff (it settled a class action lawsuit in 2017 for $4 million), and it was more recently accused in a lawsuit of racial discrimination and retaliating against an employee who reported sexual harassment. In Texas, SpaceX has angered some residents as Musk seeks to rename an area Starbase, as he tests rockets for much longer than was authorized and as he has been building next to a wildlife refuge, allegedly without the proper permits. Musk has even been hit with accusations that his Starlink satellites are a form of “astrocolonialism.”

The entrepreneur claims to be driven by the need to “preserve the light of consciousness” by making humanity a “multiplanetary” species. But this is a quest he’s foisted upon us, with little public debate about whether it’s a desirable future or whether this is the right moment to funnel resources into such a goal.

And he doesn’t lack for resources. Even though he styles himself as an entrepreneurial, self-made man, Musk and his companies are the products of vast public subsidies. A 2015 Los Angeles Times article calculated that Musk had benefited from $4.9 billion in government subsidies and that SpaceX had received $5.5 billion more in contracts from NASA and the Air Force. That included a $1.6 billion contract in 2008, which Musk admitted saved SpaceX from collapse. His companies have received much more since then, even though he pays very little tax.

Yet, as Musk’s net worth has soared, he has remained firmly opposed to plans to make billionaires pay a bit more to fund public programs to address issues like climate change and social inequalities. Musk protested plans for a billionaires tax in the Democrats’ legislative agenda this year. More recently, he said the Build Back Better Act shouldn’t be passed, and he has opposed additional electric vehicle subsidies.

Musk says he's against subsidies, but he has benefited from them hugely. He also still supports federal help for space initiatives like going to Mars. While he talks a big game about the “insane” budget deficit, this isn’t principled opposition — it’s an effort to kneecap the competition.

So while Time says Musk deserves its top honor because of his bold vision for the future, is it really the future we need? As the climate crisis accelerates, poor countries chastise the rich over “vaccine apartheid” and longstanding problems arising from an unequal distribution of wealth continue to grow, does it make sense to recognize someone who stubbornly refuses to take his eyes off the stars — all while hoarding a vast fortune that could be deployed to help address those issues?

Time’s decision could be seen as the continuation of a more than decadelong trend of the media’s building Musk up to be our savior. We could also see it as a continuation of the romanticized Silicon Valley narrative that tech will still save us. (Salesforce CEO and SpaceX investor Marc Benioff purchased Time in 2018, and the valley’s power players have been trying to present a renewed optimism this year.)

But maybe it’s not even that complicated. Maybe at a moment when the culture is obsessed with trying to get rich on speculative cryptocurrencies that shift wildly with Musk’s tweets and when a pandemic has exposed our deepest inequalities (and how hard it is to persuade the powerful to address them), declaring Elon Musk the Person of the Year actually makes total sense.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Pilots Call for Mental Health Support Without Stigma
All Five Trapped Miners Found Dead After El Teniente Mine Collapse
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
Declassified Annex Links Soros‑Affiliated Officials and Clinton Campaign to ‘Russiagate’ Narrative
UK's Online Safety Law: A Front for Censorship
Nationwide Protests Erupt in Brazil Demanding Presidential Resignation
Parents Abandon Child at Barcelona Airport Over Passport Issue
Mystery Surrounds Death of Brazilian Woman with iPhones Glued to Her Body
Bus Driver Discovers Toddler Hidden in Suitcase in New Zealand
Switzerland Celebrates 734 Years of Independence Amid Global Changes
U.S. Opens Official Investigation into Former Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith
Leaked audio of Canada's new PM Mark Carney admitting the truth about the Net Zero agenda: "We're gonna make a lot of money off of this."
China Enforces Comprehensive Ban on Cryptocurrency Activities
Absolutely 100% Realistic EVO Series Doll by EXDOLL (Chinese Company) used mainly for carnal purposes
World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab: "In this new world, we must accept... total transparency. You have to get used to it. You have to behave accordingly. But if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be afraid."
Meet Mufti Hamid Patel, head of Office for Standards in Education in Pakistan
George Soros tells the World Economic Forum: "President Trump is a con man and the ultimate narcissist, who wants the world to revolve around him."
Hamas are STARVING the hostages.
Decline in Tourism in Majorca Amidst Ongoing Anti-Tourism Protests
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
Poland Begins Excavation at Dziemiany After New Clue to World War II‑Era Nazi Treasure
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Threatens Canada with Tariffs Over Palestinian State Recognition
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Trump Sues Murdoch in “Heavyweight Bout”: Lawsuit Over Alleged Epstein Letter Sets Stage for Courtroom Showdown
Germany Enters Fiscal Crisis as Cabinet Approves €174 Billion in New Debt
Trump Administration Finalizes Broad Tariff Increases on Global Trade Partners
J.K. Rowling Limits Public Engagements Citing Safety Fears
JD.com Launches €2.2 Billion Bid for German Electronics Retailer Ceconomy
Azerbaijan Proceeds with Plan to Legalise Casinos on Artificial Islands
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
×