One of the defining economic challenges of our time is figuring out how to distribute the value generated by groundbreaking technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence, and recent innovations in biomedicine and manufacturing, which rely on massive computing power.
To improve living standards, the benefits of transformative technologies must be widely shared. So far, however, these rewards have been monopolized by a small cadre of tech billionaires.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a prime example. Most people recognize that Musk did not deserve the $56 billion in annual compensation that the company’s board of directors attempted to give him in 2018 — given Tesla’s relatively modest profits and years of losses. Nevertheless, the board argued that this enormous sum was necessary to incentivize Musk to remain at the company — an argument so baseless that a Delaware judge recently invalidated the “unfathomable” compensation package.