Sanders challenges Musk to back a 5% billionaire wealth tax

WASHINGTON (MNTV) — Senator Bernie Sanders has challenged Elon Musk to support a 5 percent wealth tax on billionaires, arguing that Musk’s forecasts about an AI-driven future economy should be matched by policies that reduce inequality in the present.

On X, Sanders questioned whether Musk’s claim that money may lose importance squares with his opposition to taxing extreme wealth, arguing a modest tax on billionaire fortunes could raise living standards and narrow economic disparities.

“The fact that he doesn’t tells you everything you need to know,” Sanders said.

The exchange follows Musk’s interview with The Economist, where he suggested money could matter far less by 2036 if AI and robotics dramatically expand production, replacing scarcity with abundance.

Asked how people displaced by AI would survive, Musk said governments could provide direct financial support. Economist Daron Acemoglu, a 2024 Nobel laureate, urged Musk to commit his fortune to charity by 2036 if he truly believes money will lose its importance; Musk said he would consider it but announced nothing specific.

Musk, among the world’s wealthiest people, has consistently opposed wealth taxes, arguing that taxing billionaires alone would not close the budget deficit and that he has already paid billions.

The underlying divide is about whether technological progress narrows inequality or deepens it — and the question Sanders is pressing is who captures the wealth AI generates, and what stops the gains from pooling among a handful of people at the top.