[93po]

> However, his competence leaves something to be desired.

Elon: The richest and most successful business person in the history of humanity

Hacker news: he's not competent

[attemptone]

>Implying that money is a good metric for the competence of a person.

Why don't we go a step further and say that poor people deserve to be poor because they're incompetent?

>in the history of humanity [citation needed]

[93po]

Being poor doesn't imply incompetence.

Growing your wealth more than a hundred fold in 10 years implies competence.

[cygx]

Elon: The richest and most successful business person in the history of humanity

Rockefeller probably still has him bet, never mind historical figures such as Mansa Munsa or Augustus Caesar (though in rather different contexts).

Personally, I wouldn't frame things in terms of competence, but trustworthiness. However, his disdain for public transport does seem rather myopic...

[93po]

In terms of what you can buy with your money, Elon has them all beat. Any reasonable person would take Elon money in 2022 versus Rockefeller money in early 1900s. And Rockefeller's net worth was around 3% of US GDP, which is around $600 billion today - an amount that Elon will almost assuredly pass in his lifetime.

I also weight "success" with how much is inherited. Elon obviously inherited a ton, but Augustus literally inherited the most powerful state on the planet.

One of Elon's most visible projects (Hyperloop) is literally public transit.

[cygx]

One of Elon's most visible projects (Hyperloop) is literally public transit.

Elon does not actively work on the Hyperloop, and critics have argued it may even be a red herring that he put out there deliberately to distract from more realistic and well-proven high speed rail technology. What Elon (or at least the Boring Company) did work on, though, is the 'Vegas Loop', a sad joke of a project.