Rockets Over Rice

And other reasons we need to stop idolizing billionaires.

Thank you for being here. This work is only possible because of the support of readers like you—people who refuse to look away, who share what matters, and who understand that independent journalism is more important now than ever.

If you're able to support this work, please consider a monthly subscription or a one-time donation via Venmo @Sugar_Rhi or you can Buy Me a Coffee ☕️. Every bit helps me keep digging, keep writing, and keep telling the stories they don't want told.

And if you can't donate right now? I see you too. Just being here, reading, learning, and sharing—that's support. That's community. And I'm grateful for each and every single one of you.

Now let's get into it.

On June 12, 2026, Elon Musk became a trillionaire.

On that same day, thousands of children died of hunger.

This is not a coincidence. It's a choice.

He bought Twitter for $44 billion so he could control what you see, what you believe, and who you blame. To manufacture consent, destroy accountability, and protect his own power at any cost. That's not a platform. That's a propaganda machine. And it's still working beautifully. For him.

He spent $15 billion on a rocket that explodes. For what? To go to Mars? A legacy? Ego? All I see is an asshole who continues to pollute and destroy our environment at record speed.

But when the UN asked for $6.6 billion to save 42 million people from starvation—he asked for a plan, got it, then posted a tabloid link and walked away.

Let that sink in.

He Asked. They Answered.

In 2021, the UN's World Food Programme director David Beasley made a stunning claim: $6 billion could save 42 million people from starvation.

Not end world hunger forever. Not fix poverty. Just stop 42 million men, women, and children from dying right now.

Elon Musk responded on Twitter. He said: "If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it." A perfect performance. He knew most people would never check to see if he followed through. That's how manipulation works—you say the thing that sounds good, you get the credit, and by the time anyone realizes you never did it, you've already moved on to the next headline. The promise travels around the world while the betrayal is still putting on its shoes.

Beasley and his team did exactly that. They laid out a detailed, transparent, open-source plan.

Then Musk posted a six-year-old tabloid link about UN misconduct and walked away.

He never wrote the check. And I don't believe for one second that he ever intended to.

What He Spent Instead

Let's compare.

• Cost to save 42 million lives: $6.6 billion.

• Cost to develop the Starship rocket: $15 billion (and counting).

• Cost to buy Twitter: $44 billion (now worth 80% less—a loss of over $35 billion).

He spent more than double the hunger-saving amount on a single rocket. He spent nearly seven times that amount on a social media platform he has turned into his personal propaganda machine—now worth 80% less.

That lost value alone—$35 billion—could have paid for ending hunger for millions, housed every homeless veteran in America, and still had billions left over. Instead, it evaporated into a failed ego project.

He could have saved 42 million lives twice over and still had billions left for his little rocket fetish.

He chose the rocket. His own ego.

The Tax Year He Paid Nothing

In 2018, Elon Musk paid $0 in federal income tax. And that same year, his companies received billions in government subsidies—your tax dollars, by the way.

That's not a conspiracy theory. It's from the ProPublica "Secret IRS Files." It's perfectly legal—because billionaires don't make "income" the way you and I do. They borrow against their stock. They claim losses. They hire armies of accountants to ensure that while a nurse pays 20%, a trillionaire pays nothing.

And we call that "earning it."

Let Me Tell You What Makes Me Sicker

In America right now, a mother can steal a loaf of bread to feed her hungry children and end up in handcuffs. Mugshot. Criminal record. Court costs. Jail time. We will spend thousands of taxpayer dollars to punish her for trying to keep her kids alive—when the bread itself cost less than $5. The math is evil. The morality is even worse.

Meanwhile, a trillionaire can pay $0 in federal income tax—legally—and we call him a genius. And let's be clear: he has invented nothing. He has taken other people's work, slapped his name on it, and profited. That's not genius. That's theft with a PR team.

We have the moral clarity of a funhouse mirror. Steal bread? Monster. Hoard billions while children starve? Visionary.

I seriously need someone to explain that to me. Explain it like I'm five.

And Here's the Part I Really Can't Stomach

People want to be him.

Schoolkids wear his face on T-shirts. Grown adults defend his every tweet. Politicians beg for his approval like he's a king.

But here's what I know—because I've worked for someone like him.

He's never been inside a grocery store. Not once. Never clipped a coupon. Never stood in a checkout line doing the mental math of "can I afford this?" He has no idea what a loaf of bread costs. No idea that people have to choose between rent and insulin. He's never gone to bed hungry. Never worried about keeping a roof over his head.

I'm not exaggerating. I saw it firsthand. The distance isn't just money—it's a complete absence of shared reality. These people live in a totally different world. They fly over the one we're stuck in.

So when he talks about saving humanity on Mars, I don't think he's lying. I think he genuinely can't see the humans right in front of him. They're not real to him. Nothing in the real world has ever touched him. I truly don't think he could survive one day in the real world without his money, without his handlers, without everyone saying yes to him.

And yet we hand him the microphone and call him the future.

We don't need to aspire to that. We need to be ashamed of it.

Here's What I Keep Coming Back To

He asked the price to feed starving people as if he cared. He was handed the plan. He had the money—easily, trivially, without even noticing the dent.

And without hesitation, he said no and went about his day.

I don't know if that makes him evil. But honestly? I'm struggling to find a better word. I know this: if you have the power to stop a child from starving tonight, and you choose not to—there aren't a lot of good words left for what that is.

Maybe he doesn't see it that way. Maybe he's so insulated, so surrounded by enablers, so deep in his own Mars-and-monologue reality that starving children don't feel real to him. Maybe that's worse.

Either way, the result is the same. Millions die. He buys another rocket.

And While We're at It—The "It's His Money" Excuse

I can already hear it. Someone's reading this and thinking: "It's his money. He earned it. He can do whatever he wants."

No. Fuck that.

Nobody earns a trillion dollars. Nobody. You don't work your way to a trillion. You steal it. You lie, cheat, and step on everyone around you. You let other people do the actual work while you take the credit and collect the rewards. You manipulate. You exploit. And then you have the audacity to call it "earned."

The only reason billionaires exist is because we changed the rules to make them possible. We can change the rules back. And that's exactly what needs to happen.

So Now What?

I don't have a tidy solution. I'm not a politician or a policy expert. I'm just a person who is tired.

Tired of watching monsters get called geniuses.

Tired of hearing "it's his money" while children starve to death.

Tired of a system that jails the poor and celebrates the hoarder.

Tired of watching the wealthy commit real crimes—Epstein files, trafficking, fraud—and walk away because they can afford better lawyers than justice.

Tired of watching rockets fly while children starve.

And the only reason hunger still exists is because we keep allowing a handful of men to put their egos, their legacies, their obsession with Mars above their own humanity—above millions of children's lives. Then we call them geniuses. Why? Because at the end of the day we are letting them manipulate reality just so they feel important.

Instead of demanding they play by the same rules as everyone else, we hand them the microphone. Instead of demanding they pull up their bootstraps and put on their big boy pants, we make excuses for them.

Until we demand that the rules apply equally to everyone—billionaires and single mothers alike—we're going to keep getting shit on.

Our children are being impacted the most. They didn't ask for any of this. And yet they're the ones being left with the debt, the dying planet, this is the future we're leaving them. All so a handful of rich assholes can feed their own egos.

That's not vision. That's not legacy. It's outright theft. And we're collectively allowing it.

So here's the question: What are we going to do about it? Because this mess is ours to clean up. And we better get started.