Elon Musk’s net worth topped a record-breaking $400 billion this week, a number that may be difficult for many people to visualize.
The Tesla CEO’s fortune has grown 77 percent since Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 United States elections last month, Bloomberg reports, to $447 billion. His wealth jumped $62.8 billion in one day, which is the largest one-day jump on record.
And in 2024, his wealth grew by a staggering $218 billion.
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To put all of this into context in comparison to the regular American, a TikToker has used grains of rice to visualize the amount of money Musk has compared to the average person in America.
The average net worth of a US citizen varies depending on age, education, family structure, and race or ethnicity. The median net worth in America is $192,900, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
TikToker @realestatebulldog used a single grain of rice and told his followers that if you split a line down the middle of the country’s population, about half would have a single grain or less, with the grain representing roughly $200,000.
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The grains of rice grow into a pile as the TikToker visualizes different net worths. A small pile representing $100,000,000 for a CEO accumulates, which is already huge compared to the single grain.
A massive pile of rice represents the $6.3 billion net worth of president-elect Donald Trump, and this pile still looks tiny compared to Musk’s, a truly humongous pile.
“This is what actual health disparity looks like in America,” the TikToker says as he films the massive rice pile.
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With the help of the rice, Americans were able to put their own net worths and salaries into perspective when compared to the richest people in the world.
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“Nobody I know has a grain of rice,” one shocked commenter on TikTok wrote.
Another outraged viewer declared: “Elon Musk can’t even physically spend that much money in his lifetime.”
A third said: “My husband and I together make less than a grain of rice and we keep saying if we could ever make it to 200k we’d be okay, but everything keeps going up including health care.”
While someone else wrote: “I don’t even have a grain of rice lol.”
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A fifth TikTok user said: “I audibly started crying of laughter when it reached Elon Musk using the rice puts it into perspective how ridiculous this country really is.”
One popular comment, with over 3,000 likes, said: “My grandpa always said money is like [manure], in a big pile it stinks, but spread it around and you can watch things grow.”
Gregory Robinson