That's a great many birthday envelopes from a man who apparently has no intention of running out of pocket money. And so begins a peculiarly American domestic comedy. Daddy has opened his wallet, and the children must decide whether accepting his money constitutes an unforgivable betrayal of their principles.
The answer, surely, is no. But what fun we shall have pretending otherwise, given the current state of affairs in America, where even accepting a gift can amount to an act of ideological treason. Musk is an appropriate protagonist for this little family drama.
After all, fatherhood occupies a conspicuous place in his public life, while his extraordinary fortune has made him something like a patriarch of the technological age. He's a man whose companies promise to shape the world his 14 children, and everyone else's, will inherit. Now he proposes to put a little of that inheritance in millions of American pockets.
One can almost hear the adolescent negotiations. Dad, you're embarrassing. Your politics are impossible.
Please don't speak to my friends. Also, is the money coming Friday? There is something gloriously Freudian about the arrangement.
America, that great republic of self-declared independence, finds itself contemplating an allowance from a billionaire whose public pronouncements are hardly universally beloved. But beneath the family melodrama lies a rather adult question. When did accepting something from someone become synonymous with approving of everything they stand for?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
