It has been four years since lead and other toxins were found to be tainting the water supply in Flint, Mich. This month, Flint community schools thanked billionaire Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation for donating almost $500,000 to install new water fountains with filtration systems in all its schools.


Back in July, Musk promised to fund repairs to any water filtration system in any house in Flint that is contaminated above FDA levels, and he has already begun fulfilling this promise.

This is yet another example of the humanity of the powerful South African entrepreneur. On the side of his dozen business ventures, Musk is known as a prominent philanthropist. Apart from his Flint donations, he has donated $15 million to an XPRIZE program called Global Learning. The program aims to “empower children to take control of their learning” and is a part of the XPRIZE Foundation.

After the devastating hurricane of Puerto Rico, Musk reached out to victims lacking clean water or electricity. According to Fortune, “As soon as the storm passed, Tesla began sending hundreds of Powerwall battery systems that can be paired with solar panels to the devastated island in an effort to restore electric power there and the shipments of Powerwall battery systems are continuing.“ Per the reports, Tesla employees assisted in installing the system and Musk donated $250,000 toward the relief effort.

Musk is also a member of “The Giving Pledge,” the promise of the mega-wealthy to give the majority of their fortune to charity rather than to their descendants when they die. Other notable members include Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

But Elon Musk has not risen to super-fame through his charitable efforts. Rather, he is known for his business ventures. His company SpaceX aims to reduce the cost of space travel by re-using rocket boosters, introduce the private sphere into this coveted but expensive market, and create space tourism en masse to "broaden our horizons and make the future fun."

His infamous car company, Tesla, aims to create a vehicle which in its emissions or production does no harm to the environment, while still being technologically razor-edged and curiously pleasant to drive. His cars are well known but have recently gathered attention due to Musk’s threats to take the company private, as well as speculating that Saudi businessmen may wish to invest in it. After the SEC sued Musk for market manipulation, he has stepped down as company chairman but remained as CEO. He has also been heavily fined.

Musk’s NeuraLink company aims to create brain-computer interfaces, which will allow humans “… to create a system that allows humans to seamlessly communicate with technology without the need for an actual, physical interface.” Within four years, Musk aims to create a system that will lead to humans communicating by a system of "consensual telepathy."

Among his other ventures, The Boring Company has as its goal “to solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic.” He continues: “roads must go 3D, which means either flying cars or tunnels. Unlike flying cars, tunnels are weatherproof, out of sight and won't fall on your head.” The Boring Company plans to build a large network of tunnels "many levels deep" to fix congestion in various U.S. cities, starting with Los Angeles.

Musk is also chairman of a company called SolarCity, one of the largest solar panel producers in he world. He has on multiple occasions stressed the need for transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies such as wind and solar. “We’re playing with fire in coal and oil,” Musk said.

In other words, we have in Elon Musk a self-made philanthropic entrepreneur, who has as his goals the preservation and protection of the environment, the annihilation of traffic and introduction of worldwide Internet, as well as the scientific and medical advancement of mankind.

In consideration of all the above, we might even ask whether Musk should be the poster boy for the American dream. Should he be recognized as a capitalist example, champion of science, and hero of the environment? Yes. Is the media fawning over his countless moral deeds and wishing him success in his progressive endeavors? No. Rather, he is constantly berated, belittled, and criticized for trivial reasons.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens refers to him as: “The Donald of Silicon Valley”. The piece reads:

He is prone to unhinged Twitter eruptions. He can’t handle criticism. He scolds the news media for its purported dishonesty and threatens to create a Soviet-like apparatus to keep tabs on it. He suckers people to fork over cash in exchange for promises he hasn’t kept. He’s a billionaire whose business flirts with bankruptcy. He’s sold himself as an establishment-crushing iconoclast when he’s really little more than an unusually accomplished B.S. artist. His legions of devotees are fanatics and, let’s face it, a bit stupid.


Last month on the Joe Rogan podcast, Musk committed what has been considered his gravest crime. In this podcast, he reluctantly gave in to a request by the host and smoked one puff of marijuana to “taste what it was like.” He was scorned and reprimanded for partaking in an activity which is fully legal where he was (California), and frankly, it remains a victimless activity shared by other mega-successful people.

This horrific “crime” was swiftly punished. Two of Tesla's executives quit on him almost immediately and shares fell 8 percent. He was barraged by every press outlet and made fun of on social media. Amid this illogical fury, surprisingly coming from the side of the political aisle which usually champions the environment and drug legalization, I was left to wonder: When are we going to realize that in Musk, we have hit pretty close to jackpot?

How often have private sector behemoths been seemingly transparent individuals with moral, scientific and environmental objectives? He seems to break all the “crony-capitalist” stereotypes: sole incentive of profit, resorting to exploitation, sacrifice of values for financial gain, anti-regulation rhetoric – none seriously apply to him.

He is, instead, close to the embodiment of what good capitalism and markets can do: Mainly, allow decent people to accumulate wealth and spend it on ethical and productive goals, all the while keeping the preservation of one’s environment as a goal of itself. This truly is unique and cannot be dismissed as anything other than highly beneficial.

Musk is the example of the moral, productive capitalism free-marketers have been referencing since the time of Adam Smith. If science and space exploration is to continue to be paramount, especially given current American dependence on Russia for getting to space and NASA’s tightening budget, the private sector must provide it at some point. Musk already has.

SolarCity’s mission is not only one of financial or political relevance, the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy is utterly necessary for the growth of our civilization and for the preservation of bio-diversity and the environment. Now with new innovations such as solar-bricks and cheaper panels, Musk is center stage.

Tesla cars, despite their current troubles, are known to be fully green exceptional driving machines, and have for the first time outsold Mercedes in the U.S. – relying not on advertisement campaigns, but on the simple idea that if the customer simply tries the car they will be seduced by it. Brain-computer interfaces are what tomorrow will look like. With Musk at the helm of it, we can be confident they are taking decisive steps forward.

His philanthropy for clean water, education, renewable energies and disaster relief do more for the world and the impoverished than any government aid program could ever hope to achieve. One thing that is certain: No matter how many of his projects fail to reach fruition, Musk has already succeeded in his first and most important mission: getting us excited for the future.

Louis Sarkozy is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is a student in philosophy and religion at New York University. He is the youngest son of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.