Time Magazine hasn’t always risen to a standard that most of us would consider “honorable” in naming their “Person of the Year,” considering that the magazine has in past year anointed Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump. As several of you point out, Time has never been interested in the definition of honor. It just wants to sell more copies and attract more eyeballs.
But Time’s peculiar annual rite does at least give us an opportunity to examine the important difference between notoriety and honor by asking ourselves who really deserves to be honored in these trying times.
Already today, many of you have offered some superb examples.
Understandably, most of you want to honor politicians. I can tell you from personal experience that the world of politics is a hard one. The past year has been especially grueling.
I agree with Oscar that Liz Cheney deserves a nod (although her normal politics are to the right of Attila). With great courage and determination, she has shown her loyalty to the American system of government — in sharp contrast with most of her Republican colleagues in the House and Senate.
Joan and several others nominate Nancy Pelosi, who I think is hugely deserving. Pelosi is probably the most gifted politician of our era. She has navigated America’s perilous political currents with deftness and calm.
Some of you have put forward Joe Biden, and I can understand why. He has demonstrated steadfastness and resilience during this Republican chaos — although in coming months I hope Biden will invest more of his time and energy in securing voting rights, and protecting American democracy (which means getting rid of the filibuster or at least carving out a voting rights exception).
A few of you have nominated Stacey Abrams, who hopefully will be the next governor of Georgia, and whose extraordinary gifts as a political organizer deserve our abiding gratitude.
Mary Ann suggests Elizabeth Warren, Katie Porter, and the Squad – all of whom continue to display remarkable courage and tenacity. As long as we’re talking about courage and tenacity, let’s add Bernie Sanders to the honors list.
All these people on the front lines of this perilous period of American politics deserve to be honored, and I could add several more.
But when thinking about the past year, it seems to me that the people who deserve the greatest honors are those who have been on the front lines of the pandemic and the economy – nurses, hospital orderlies, emergency-room doctors, warehouse workers, meatpacking workers, delivery workers, teachers, firefighters, and all others whose work has been essential.
Many of them have risked their lives so the rest of us could survive this past year (and the year before). Many are paid little and work long hours in poor working conditions. Few get the respect they deserve. (Some are now on strike, for good reason.)
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are nurses. I’ve been astonished and humbled by what they’ve seen and done. Their care and sacrifice -- and that of hundreds of thousands of people like them -- are in sharp contrast to the bombastic selfishness and mean-spiritedness of the Donald Trumps, Elon Musks, Mitch McConnells, Joe Manchins, and Marjorie Taylor Greenes who dominate the national stage. Such megalomaniacs too often blind us to the great good that the vast number of unsung heroes continue to do.
So my person of the year is the worker on the front lines. Let us not only honor him or her with our words in this forum, but also express our gratitude directly to them whenever we can, and stand in solidarity with their efforts to get better pay and working conditions.
Robert, you of course as well as everyone else herein are correct in their choices. Looking at these people encourages me, makes me happier, and reminds me how many good people we have to celebrate.
My vote would go to Liz Cheney, whose conservative voting record I deplore, but who in the last year has shown she has the biggest pair of balls in Congress. Her courage in standing up to Trump and really calling out what he and his abettors stand for and have been doing requires courage we haven't seen elsewhere. She is persona non grata to a party that has abandoned all pretense at governing in a democracy, has been removed from all her party's committees, is under personal attack and threats and will face a rabid challenger for her seat next year. Nevertheless, she continues to call out the malfeasance and by publicly reading into the record the emails, etc. from Meadows et al, has shown to the whole world just how rife at the top the January 6 insurrection was. Surely that is worth the "Person of the Year Award." She has thrown down the challenge to the rest of us to hold these miscreants responsible. My mantra has been: "When a coup attempt goes unpunished, it becomes a training exercise." Eleven months after the event not one senior perpetrator has been touched and the world has forgotten that 147 GOP Congresspersons voted to overturn the legitimate election. We're putting back our headphones and letting democracy die.
Oscar, as I say in my "chiming in" notes, I agree that Liz Cheney deserves our abiding gratitude for her courage and determination in standing up for democracy, in sharp contrast to most of her Republican colleagues. History will remember her kindly.
Oscar, I would urge we take note that the highly effective Vice Chair of the Investigation has opposed passage of Federal voter protection legislation each time some version of it was brought to the floor. When asked some time back to explain her repeated opposition, if memory serves, she uttered some nonsense about each state’s unique circumstances.
Nobody's suggesting anyone vote for her. But I would be disinclined to speak ill of her, as she has fought and is castigated by the clowns who've usurped the party.
DZK, Considering what is happening as we speak to lay the groundwork for Trump or his allies to return to power whether or not they receive enough votes, Cheney’s opposition to legislation that would preempt states from changing election rules to change who is in charge, how votes are counted, how they’re certified, and so forth, in my view, is reprehensible.
If that's true, I see your objection. I wasn't aware she was publicly opposing that measure. You're the first person I've come across that's mentioned it. You got a link or anything that discusses her opposition to that measure?
I’d make it The “Essential Worker” as a final thank you since they’re the same person doing the same job, but they’re apparently not essential anymore. Sort of like a parting gift before they return to a powerless life of exploitation, ya know?
I just wish our discussion about who we really are as a country and as a people can begin with something that shouldn't be controversial. It can be a straightforward question about what it means when we, as a society, say we care about someone, like 9-11 first responders, essential healthcare workers, those who perform heroic deeds like Sully landing that plane, etc. And why is it we let them suffer when a few years go by and the responders still badly need more aid, or the economy is open again so those who risked their lives for us are now just greedy employees with their unions and demands for things like better pay, or how Sully became just an attention-seeking pain when he started using his microphone to raise awareness of the poor pay and treatment of pilots. We have to have these conversations to figure out why we so often admire the wrong people and then don't really stand by truly admirable people or laws or values that we claim to care about. If we don't address this, we'll never be anything stable, anything real or lasting. We'll never be anything more than this paper mache empire still coasting along on the wealth and power gained from the lies, hypocrisies and exploitation that have defined us from the day we arrived at this "new land."
Gina, When I despair over the dozens of provisions that already have passed to subvert the will of the people, let alone what the January 6th Investigation has revealed about the plot both to overturn the 2020 election and also to upend its administration, Stacey Abrams, whom I’ve never met, inspires me to marshall every resource I can muster to stay in the fight.
Whoever's job it is to choose Person of the Year is a fool. Or a committee of monkeys. I think Dr. Fauci should be Person of the Year. He has given us as much knowledge as is available on this strange new world we're living in all along and continues to do so. Who knows how many lives he has saved by his consistent flow of information necessary to save as many lives as possible? (Alas, what some people do, or rather don't do, with that information is sad.)
The quality that impresses me most about Dr. Fauci is his integrity. Regardless of whether he's officially working for Trump or Biden, he calls it as he sees it. Few Americans are more trusted.
It's a magazine sales campaign calculated to stir public interest in buying the magazine. They're not fools. Don't underestimate them. They're selling copy.
Thanks to the virtual disappearance of newsstands, I rarely see a copy. What once drew me to it was the person-of-the-week cover art, particularly Artzybasheff's ..
I am disappointed at your response to my question. The usual response when someone points out a mistake that you have made is a simple "Thank you."
The main purpose of my being on this forum is education. I was hoping you would provide a name that could start an interaction that could end up with both of us learning something. For example, "Dolly Parton" was one answer given by someone to Mr. Reich's question. Totally unexpected! I went on the Internet and learned about what a wonderful person she is and all the good things she does for others.
I'm reminded of a story about a cow, a little bird, and a cat. A little bird got a late start going South for the winter and fell out of the sky into a farm yard. Oblivious, a cow wandered over the little bird and dumped a great pile of manure over the little bird. However, the dung heap kept the little bird warm and protected. Along came a hungry cat eating anything anywhere it could find it. It found the little bird inside the pile of dung and swallowed it whole.
Moral of story: Those who seem to sh*t on you aren't necessarily your enemies, and those who >seem< to take sh*t off you aren't necessarily your friends.
Those who embrace you closely are commonly lifting your wallet. And be wary of those who flatter you all the time they're disenfranchising you, then turning around and demanding your gratitude as they tell you you never had it so good and blame your troubles on someone other than themselves. I, too, am a "worker." Another worker told me that story at a union meeting.
If I read you right, you think that the moneyed elites (corporations and billionaires) are using their power and influence to shaft the middle class (workers and small business owners), resulting in most of the economic benefits of the last 40 years flowing to them with the middle class getting only crumbs. This is a major theme of Mr. Reich. I suggest you go to the newsletter archives to read what Mr. Reich has written on this subject. Very worthwhile. As for Twitter, if it disappeared I would not mourn at all.
I put Time's Person of the Year cover in the category of "So What?". Musk joins such Stalin, Hitler and Trump with this "honor". I nominate Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Any worker who has continuously worked in their job since March 2020. Not those who were able to go to remote or virtual but those public facing workers who have had to endure the pandemic from the front lines.
Rep Pramila Jayapal, Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In my opinion she's done the most of any member of Congress to advance President Biden's BBB agenda. She's eloquent, diplomatic and upfront. Her demeanor is admirable, in face of much adversity, something more politicians should try to emulate. Other than Bernie Sanders, she's the clear leader of the Progressive agenda. When President Biden called her mother after the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, my feeling is that he must have been so impressed in working with her daughter that he had to call to let her known what an outstanding daughter she had raised (just a guess but I bet it's not far off the mark!).
Jim, she's absolutely terrific. I've had the pleasure of working with her on several occasions and I can attest that one-on-one she's as principled, courageous, and dignified as she comes across in the media.
I assume Elon Musk's ego is now inflated to the size of one of the planets he seeks to colonize, while his heart is two sizes too small. I might consider him, but not for the reasons Time gave. He is the epitome of the greed and selfishness that permeate so much of this country and keep us from moving forward. Look at him and be fearful for the future of this country.
To honor people who actually contribute, I would name all of the public health officials around the country, who have had to endure disrespect, denigration, and death threats just for working hard, doing their jobs, to keep their constituents healthy.
Musk is far from self-made. He was born in South Africa to an extremely wealthy white family that profited off the exploitation of workers in sub-Saharan Africa and apartheid-era South Africa.
Much of his family’s wealth came from an emerald mine in Zambia owned by Errol Musk, Elon’s father.
The African mining industry is known to be incredibly exploitative, with child labor, horrible working conditions, disease, abuse of workers, and fatalities all commonplace.
The workers in these mines are mostly black native residents of African countries, while the owners are usually the descendants of rich, white colonists.
Musk is not a “self-made billionaire,” he comes from an extremely privileged family that squeezed millions of dollars out of some of the poorest nations in the world.
With a rich family to borrow money from, and massive amounts of wealth gained from the exploitation of African mineral resources, Musk could finally purchase Tesla.
Yes, you read that correctly.
While it is commonly believed that Musk founded Tesla, this is untrue, and another reminder of the power of PR.
Musk invested millions of dollars in Tesla in the early 2000s and paid his way up the corporate ladder, becoming the company’s CEO in 2008.
He eventually fought one of the company’s true founders, Martin Eberhard, for the title in a 2009 court case. If at first, you don’t succeed, complain and sue until you do!
This is not an isolated example, either.
Musk also claims to be the founder of PayPal, when in fact he owned another company that purchased Paypal.
Again, Musk fought for the title of founder, which he won with the help of his family’s wealth.
Founding a company, especially companies like PayPal and Tesla, carries lots of prestige considering the hard work that it involves. But why work hard when you’re born rich?
Well, alright. Musk may not have any real entrepreneurial talent. His companies are still shaking up the automotive industry through ingenuity and talent, right? Right?
No. Tesla has received millions of dollars of government loans to support its mediocre products.
Four hundred and sixty-five million dollars in government loans were spent to fund the Model S sedan, and eight and a half billion dollars were shared between Ford, Nissan, and Tesla in a 2009 stimulus fund.
Furthermore, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tesla received an unnamed amount of government stimulus money as well.
Interestingly enough, right before accepting a fat check from Uncle Sam, Musk tweeted, “Another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people imo [in my opinion].”
Why give money to financially unstable Americans when you could just give it to the second richest man in the world and his multi-billion dollar corporation?
Billionaires are not our friends, and they are not self-made.
Every billionaire makes their money by lying, cheating, stealing, and exploiting every step of the way.
PR is a tool used by the extremely wealthy to make ordinary working people, whose labor they exploit and whose tax dollars they parasitically siphon, believe that they can be rich too if they work hard enough.
In the meantime, they pay their way to the top and get rewarded with government money.
How about Joe Biden? Or Elizabeth Warren? Or the firefighters who put their lives on the line fighting the forest fires? Or a Doctor or nurse working in the Covid ward? A teacher? Me? Anybody but frickin' Elon Musk!
Joe Biden. Time’s rationale for the pick would be a complete and honest story of his plan’s accomplishments during this year - fighting COVID, helping poor families, bringing the economy roaring back, and on and on. All in the interest of unifying the country.
Time Magazine hasn’t always risen to a standard that most of us would consider “honorable” in naming their “Person of the Year,” considering that the magazine has in past year anointed Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump. As several of you point out, Time has never been interested in the definition of honor. It just wants to sell more copies and attract more eyeballs.
But Time’s peculiar annual rite does at least give us an opportunity to examine the important difference between notoriety and honor by asking ourselves who really deserves to be honored in these trying times.
Already today, many of you have offered some superb examples.
Understandably, most of you want to honor politicians. I can tell you from personal experience that the world of politics is a hard one. The past year has been especially grueling.
I agree with Oscar that Liz Cheney deserves a nod (although her normal politics are to the right of Attila). With great courage and determination, she has shown her loyalty to the American system of government — in sharp contrast with most of her Republican colleagues in the House and Senate.
Joan and several others nominate Nancy Pelosi, who I think is hugely deserving. Pelosi is probably the most gifted politician of our era. She has navigated America’s perilous political currents with deftness and calm.
Some of you have put forward Joe Biden, and I can understand why. He has demonstrated steadfastness and resilience during this Republican chaos — although in coming months I hope Biden will invest more of his time and energy in securing voting rights, and protecting American democracy (which means getting rid of the filibuster or at least carving out a voting rights exception).
A few of you have nominated Stacey Abrams, who hopefully will be the next governor of Georgia, and whose extraordinary gifts as a political organizer deserve our abiding gratitude.
Mary Ann suggests Elizabeth Warren, Katie Porter, and the Squad – all of whom continue to display remarkable courage and tenacity. As long as we’re talking about courage and tenacity, let’s add Bernie Sanders to the honors list.
All these people on the front lines of this perilous period of American politics deserve to be honored, and I could add several more.
But when thinking about the past year, it seems to me that the people who deserve the greatest honors are those who have been on the front lines of the pandemic and the economy – nurses, hospital orderlies, emergency-room doctors, warehouse workers, meatpacking workers, delivery workers, teachers, firefighters, and all others whose work has been essential.
Many of them have risked their lives so the rest of us could survive this past year (and the year before). Many are paid little and work long hours in poor working conditions. Few get the respect they deserve. (Some are now on strike, for good reason.)
My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are nurses. I’ve been astonished and humbled by what they’ve seen and done. Their care and sacrifice -- and that of hundreds of thousands of people like them -- are in sharp contrast to the bombastic selfishness and mean-spiritedness of the Donald Trumps, Elon Musks, Mitch McConnells, Joe Manchins, and Marjorie Taylor Greenes who dominate the national stage. Such megalomaniacs too often blind us to the great good that the vast number of unsung heroes continue to do.
So my person of the year is the worker on the front lines. Let us not only honor him or her with our words in this forum, but also express our gratitude directly to them whenever we can, and stand in solidarity with their efforts to get better pay and working conditions.
Robert, you of course as well as everyone else herein are correct in their choices. Looking at these people encourages me, makes me happier, and reminds me how many good people we have to celebrate.
HEAR, HEAR!
Agree 100%
My vote would go to Liz Cheney, whose conservative voting record I deplore, but who in the last year has shown she has the biggest pair of balls in Congress. Her courage in standing up to Trump and really calling out what he and his abettors stand for and have been doing requires courage we haven't seen elsewhere. She is persona non grata to a party that has abandoned all pretense at governing in a democracy, has been removed from all her party's committees, is under personal attack and threats and will face a rabid challenger for her seat next year. Nevertheless, she continues to call out the malfeasance and by publicly reading into the record the emails, etc. from Meadows et al, has shown to the whole world just how rife at the top the January 6 insurrection was. Surely that is worth the "Person of the Year Award." She has thrown down the challenge to the rest of us to hold these miscreants responsible. My mantra has been: "When a coup attempt goes unpunished, it becomes a training exercise." Eleven months after the event not one senior perpetrator has been touched and the world has forgotten that 147 GOP Congresspersons voted to overturn the legitimate election. We're putting back our headphones and letting democracy die.
Oscar, as I say in my "chiming in" notes, I agree that Liz Cheney deserves our abiding gratitude for her courage and determination in standing up for democracy, in sharp contrast to most of her Republican colleagues. History will remember her kindly.
I agree with your view on Cheney, although she doesn't immediately spring into my mind as person of the year, for me.
And that >may< be a good thing!
Oscar, I would urge we take note that the highly effective Vice Chair of the Investigation has opposed passage of Federal voter protection legislation each time some version of it was brought to the floor. When asked some time back to explain her repeated opposition, if memory serves, she uttered some nonsense about each state’s unique circumstances.
Nobody's suggesting anyone vote for her. But I would be disinclined to speak ill of her, as she has fought and is castigated by the clowns who've usurped the party.
DZK, Considering what is happening as we speak to lay the groundwork for Trump or his allies to return to power whether or not they receive enough votes, Cheney’s opposition to legislation that would preempt states from changing election rules to change who is in charge, how votes are counted, how they’re certified, and so forth, in my view, is reprehensible.
If that's true, I see your objection. I wasn't aware she was publicly opposing that measure. You're the first person I've come across that's mentioned it. You got a link or anything that discusses her opposition to that measure?
DZK, Thank you for your reply. See YouTube, Axios Liz Cheney Interview Voting
https://secondnexus.com/liz-cheney-axios-voter-suppression
Thanks. Willdo!
I’d make it The “Essential Worker” as a final thank you since they’re the same person doing the same job, but they’re apparently not essential anymore. Sort of like a parting gift before they return to a powerless life of exploitation, ya know?
Ian, I agree completely.
I just wish our discussion about who we really are as a country and as a people can begin with something that shouldn't be controversial. It can be a straightforward question about what it means when we, as a society, say we care about someone, like 9-11 first responders, essential healthcare workers, those who perform heroic deeds like Sully landing that plane, etc. And why is it we let them suffer when a few years go by and the responders still badly need more aid, or the economy is open again so those who risked their lives for us are now just greedy employees with their unions and demands for things like better pay, or how Sully became just an attention-seeking pain when he started using his microphone to raise awareness of the poor pay and treatment of pilots. We have to have these conversations to figure out why we so often admire the wrong people and then don't really stand by truly admirable people or laws or values that we claim to care about. If we don't address this, we'll never be anything stable, anything real or lasting. We'll never be anything more than this paper mache empire still coasting along on the wealth and power gained from the lies, hypocrisies and exploitation that have defined us from the day we arrived at this "new land."
The USA is done for. Here comes China.
Another good choice.
I get it. My sister is a nurse. It is a long haul for her. She is still at it as another surge begins.
They've just mobilized 1000 National Guard EMTs to help man the teetering hospital ICUs across the state, out here.
My sister lives and works in International Falls, MN
Stacey Abrams
Let's all make sure she becomes the next governor of Georgia.
Gina, When I despair over the dozens of provisions that already have passed to subvert the will of the people, let alone what the January 6th Investigation has revealed about the plot both to overturn the 2020 election and also to upend its administration, Stacey Abrams, whom I’ve never met, inspires me to marshall every resource I can muster to stay in the fight.
me too!! I recently went to San Antonio to see her speak. She is the modern MLK Jr. for Voting Rights and I hope she's our first female president!
Whoever's job it is to choose Person of the Year is a fool. Or a committee of monkeys. I think Dr. Fauci should be Person of the Year. He has given us as much knowledge as is available on this strange new world we're living in all along and continues to do so. Who knows how many lives he has saved by his consistent flow of information necessary to save as many lives as possible? (Alas, what some people do, or rather don't do, with that information is sad.)
The quality that impresses me most about Dr. Fauci is his integrity. Regardless of whether he's officially working for Trump or Biden, he calls it as he sees it. Few Americans are more trusted.
It's a magazine sales campaign calculated to stir public interest in buying the magazine. They're not fools. Don't underestimate them. They're selling copy.
Thanks to the virtual disappearance of newsstands, I rarely see a copy. What once drew me to it was the person-of-the-week cover art, particularly Artzybasheff's ..
That was a good marketing strategy, particularly what you mention once drew you to it, wasn't it?
J Boone, It appears that you indeed are living on another planet. One I don’t recognize.
Ooooh. You took the bait.
J Boone if you have had any therapy you would know that your statement is called projection.
Two things (1) understood and (2) you are a bad therapist.
The same planet as the clown who recommended drinking bleach to cure it. Bottoms up, Tweety fans!
It's "Time" not "Times". Times is an UK publication. Who is your nomination?
Good catch! I missed that. Telling.
I am disappointed at your response to my question. The usual response when someone points out a mistake that you have made is a simple "Thank you."
The main purpose of my being on this forum is education. I was hoping you would provide a name that could start an interaction that could end up with both of us learning something. For example, "Dolly Parton" was one answer given by someone to Mr. Reich's question. Totally unexpected! I went on the Internet and learned about what a wonderful person she is and all the good things she does for others.
I'm reminded of a story about a cow, a little bird, and a cat. A little bird got a late start going South for the winter and fell out of the sky into a farm yard. Oblivious, a cow wandered over the little bird and dumped a great pile of manure over the little bird. However, the dung heap kept the little bird warm and protected. Along came a hungry cat eating anything anywhere it could find it. It found the little bird inside the pile of dung and swallowed it whole.
Moral of story: Those who seem to sh*t on you aren't necessarily your enemies, and those who >seem< to take sh*t off you aren't necessarily your friends.
Those who embrace you closely are commonly lifting your wallet. And be wary of those who flatter you all the time they're disenfranchising you, then turning around and demanding your gratitude as they tell you you never had it so good and blame your troubles on someone other than themselves. I, too, am a "worker." Another worker told me that story at a union meeting.
Big on providing reading material for disadvantaged youngsters, I understand. Good on her.
If I read you right, you think that the moneyed elites (corporations and billionaires) are using their power and influence to shaft the middle class (workers and small business owners), resulting in most of the economic benefits of the last 40 years flowing to them with the middle class getting only crumbs. This is a major theme of Mr. Reich. I suggest you go to the newsletter archives to read what Mr. Reich has written on this subject. Very worthwhile. As for Twitter, if it disappeared I would not mourn at all.
You mean "word" police, don't you ‽ LOL!
Words are slippery when wet.
I put Time's Person of the Year cover in the category of "So What?". Musk joins such Stalin, Hitler and Trump with this "honor". I nominate Dr. Anthony Fauci.
It sells magazine copy. It's a historically successful sales gimmick.
A friend suggested the Capitol security officer who prevented the Jan 6 rioters from entering and I concur.
Absolutely.
Eugene Goodman is a true American Hero and so worthy of the title Person of the Year.
Not to sound like a kiss-ass but I’d nominate a Robert Reich as a beacon of sanity in a world rapidly going insane.
Go ahead, kiss a little ass. Dr. Reich surely is more connected that Mr. Musk.
Any worker who has continuously worked in their job since March 2020. Not those who were able to go to remote or virtual but those public facing workers who have had to endure the pandemic from the front lines.
Frontline workers. Good choice.
Nurses, doctors, and teachers! They have done the unimaginable of keeping us going! They are on my cover!
Rep Pramila Jayapal, Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In my opinion she's done the most of any member of Congress to advance President Biden's BBB agenda. She's eloquent, diplomatic and upfront. Her demeanor is admirable, in face of much adversity, something more politicians should try to emulate. Other than Bernie Sanders, she's the clear leader of the Progressive agenda. When President Biden called her mother after the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, my feeling is that he must have been so impressed in working with her daughter that he had to call to let her known what an outstanding daughter she had raised (just a guess but I bet it's not far off the mark!).
Jim, she's absolutely terrific. I've had the pleasure of working with her on several occasions and I can attest that one-on-one she's as principled, courageous, and dignified as she comes across in the media.
Thanks for letting me know! It's also good to know that my innate sense telling me she's the genuine article is still working.
I assume Elon Musk's ego is now inflated to the size of one of the planets he seeks to colonize, while his heart is two sizes too small. I might consider him, but not for the reasons Time gave. He is the epitome of the greed and selfishness that permeate so much of this country and keep us from moving forward. Look at him and be fearful for the future of this country.
To honor people who actually contribute, I would name all of the public health officials around the country, who have had to endure disrespect, denigration, and death threats just for working hard, doing their jobs, to keep their constituents healthy.
Stacey Abrams!
Musk is far from self-made. He was born in South Africa to an extremely wealthy white family that profited off the exploitation of workers in sub-Saharan Africa and apartheid-era South Africa.
Much of his family’s wealth came from an emerald mine in Zambia owned by Errol Musk, Elon’s father.
The African mining industry is known to be incredibly exploitative, with child labor, horrible working conditions, disease, abuse of workers, and fatalities all commonplace.
The workers in these mines are mostly black native residents of African countries, while the owners are usually the descendants of rich, white colonists.
Musk is not a “self-made billionaire,” he comes from an extremely privileged family that squeezed millions of dollars out of some of the poorest nations in the world.
With a rich family to borrow money from, and massive amounts of wealth gained from the exploitation of African mineral resources, Musk could finally purchase Tesla.
Yes, you read that correctly.
While it is commonly believed that Musk founded Tesla, this is untrue, and another reminder of the power of PR.
Musk invested millions of dollars in Tesla in the early 2000s and paid his way up the corporate ladder, becoming the company’s CEO in 2008.
He eventually fought one of the company’s true founders, Martin Eberhard, for the title in a 2009 court case. If at first, you don’t succeed, complain and sue until you do!
This is not an isolated example, either.
Musk also claims to be the founder of PayPal, when in fact he owned another company that purchased Paypal.
Again, Musk fought for the title of founder, which he won with the help of his family’s wealth.
Founding a company, especially companies like PayPal and Tesla, carries lots of prestige considering the hard work that it involves. But why work hard when you’re born rich?
Well, alright. Musk may not have any real entrepreneurial talent. His companies are still shaking up the automotive industry through ingenuity and talent, right? Right?
No. Tesla has received millions of dollars of government loans to support its mediocre products.
Four hundred and sixty-five million dollars in government loans were spent to fund the Model S sedan, and eight and a half billion dollars were shared between Ford, Nissan, and Tesla in a 2009 stimulus fund.
Furthermore, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tesla received an unnamed amount of government stimulus money as well.
Interestingly enough, right before accepting a fat check from Uncle Sam, Musk tweeted, “Another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people imo [in my opinion].”
Why give money to financially unstable Americans when you could just give it to the second richest man in the world and his multi-billion dollar corporation?
Billionaires are not our friends, and they are not self-made.
Every billionaire makes their money by lying, cheating, stealing, and exploiting every step of the way.
PR is a tool used by the extremely wealthy to make ordinary working people, whose labor they exploit and whose tax dollars they parasitically siphon, believe that they can be rich too if they work hard enough.
In the meantime, they pay their way to the top and get rewarded with government money.
Wow, I did not know all of this background on Musk, but it explains a lot about how he runs his companies. Thank you for sharing.
How about Joe Biden? Or Elizabeth Warren? Or the firefighters who put their lives on the line fighting the forest fires? Or a Doctor or nurse working in the Covid ward? A teacher? Me? Anybody but frickin' Elon Musk!
Joe Biden. Time’s rationale for the pick would be a complete and honest story of his plan’s accomplishments during this year - fighting COVID, helping poor families, bringing the economy roaring back, and on and on. All in the interest of unifying the country.