But he makes money from those ventures and is therefore immoral! /s
I don't understand why so many people seem to hold the attitude that the only acceptable response to someone having money is to pressure them to squander it by giving it all away to atrociously inefficient systems (government, charities, etc). Making money is not immoral. And neither is using money to make investments to make more money.
1) He exploits his workers with typical tech bro enthusiasm, working them to the bone. I hear terrible things about the work culture at his companies.
2) He claims the throne of innovator but many of his successes came from acquisitions which came from his rich parents who ran an exploitative emerald mine.
3) He manipulates the stock market openly.
4) He rarely keeps his promises.
That being said I think he's alright. But it's not just the fact that he uses his money that people complain about him.
It could be argued that the reason governments are “inefficient systems” (particularly in the US) is in large part due to the same people making ridiculous amounts of money. So while you’re being sarcastic, and probably believe that you too “can make it” don’t be surprised when you don’t, and when the government becomes even less efficient because private interests keep using their wealth to strip it of anything useful to regular people.
The government is elected to represent the interests of the people. They bear the overwhelming responsibility for any corrupt deals made with "people making ridiculous amounts of money." It sounds like you're to assign blame to a business person for buying influence, instead of blaming the politician for selling it in the first place! If politicians stop selling influence, there is nothing to buy.
For Musk, getting rich and living a lavish lifestyle is exactly the same as investing in causes he feels are important to him.
The problem here isn’t that Musk is necessarily greedier than any other majority shareholder, it’s that Musk is greedy in a peculiar way that is at odds with so many other people in the world. It’s important to embrace and understand differences, but put too much leverage behind one voice or vision and there will be consequences. And there’s a lot of criticism and evidence that Musk does not use his leverage over others responsibly.
While I have a somewhat similar impression of his use of wealth I think it’s important to remember that his public persona is well crafted. Following him “very closely” to me just means that the one doing the following is drinking all of the kool-aid
If you're interested in spaceflight and electric vehicles, it's impossible not to follow what he's working on. Being served the kool-aid is not the same as drinking it. He's imperfect -- his companies can be brutal to work for and he too often takes credit for his team's work -- but I find the passion for the companies he's part of as genuine.
My impression is that he uses his wealth mostly to invest in other ventures that he feels are important causes to him.