Elon Musk says: he will increase childcare benefits at his companies as part of his mission to tackle the “underpopulation crisis” that he adamantly claims is “by far the greatest danger facing civilization”. The world’s richest man currently runs Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company — he was also on the cusp of running Twitter until he tried to pull out of the $44 billion buyout, much to the board’s dismay from the company.
“Children are worth it if at all possible,” Musk writes. “I plan to significantly increase the childcare allowance at my companies. Hopefully other companies will do the same.” Musk’s statement comes in response to a tweet asking about the financial implications of having multiple children, a thread Nick Cannon, who also has a growing family, even interrupted. Musk adds that the Musk Foundation will also “donate directly to families,” but it’s unclear what exactly this means. Musk says he will share more details about these plans next month.
Children are worth it if at all possible. I plan to significantly increase the childcare allowance at my companies.
Hopefully other companies will do the same.
Musk Foundation also plans to donate directly to families.
Hopefully the details will be announced next month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022
As indicated by InsiderTesla is currently offering up to 16 weeks of paid family leaveas well as covers up to $40,000 for fertility services. Neurolink . jobs indicate that it offers parental leave, but it’s unclear what kind of family-related benefits SpaceX and The Boring Company have to offer.
Musk has put forward a collapsing birth rate multiple time in the recent pastand rehashed the topic after a report from Insider revealed that Musk had twins with one of his top Neuralink executives, Shivon Zilis, last year. While Musk did not directly confirm the report, he tweeted: “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis,” shortly after the claims surfaced. Musk, who currently has nine known children, has made big promises in response to past tweets — some he’s followed up on, and some…not so much.
Via Twitter, he promised to fund Flint, Michigan to help residents access clean water – what the city recently unveiled clean drinking fountains in schools – and also responded to the plea of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to send Starlink satellites at the start of the Russian invasion. We’ll have to see if Musk lives up to his promise to increase childcare benefits, or if it’s just a whimsical statement that his promise to transform Twitter is starting to look like.