Elon Musk says he will increase childcare benefits at his companies as part of his mission to address the “underpopulation crisis,” which he vehemently claims is “the greatest danger civilization has ever faced “. The world’s richest man currently runs Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company – he was also about to lead Twitter until he tried to back out of a $44 billion buyout, much to the chagrin of the company’s board.
“Kids deserve it, if at all possible,” Musk wrote. “I plan to significantly increase childcare benefits in my companies. We hope other companies will do the same.” Musk’s statement came in response to a tweet that asked about the financial implications of having multiple children, a topic that Nick Cannon, who also has a growing family, even weighed in on. Musk adds that the Musk Foundation will also “donate directly to the families,” but it’s unclear exactly what that means. Musk says he will share more details about those plans next month.
Kids deserve it if at all possible. I plan to significantly increase childcare benefits in my companies.
Hopefully other companies will do the same.
In addition, the Musk Foundation plans to donate directly to families.
Hopefully details will be announced next month.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022
As pointed out by Insider, Tesla currently provides up to 16 weeks of paid family leave, as well as covering up to $40,000 for fertility services. Job listings for Neuralink show it offers parental leave, but it’s unclear what kind of family benefits SpaceX and The Boring Company might offer.
Musk has mentioned the collapsing birth rate several times in the recent past, and revisited the topic again after an Insider report revealed that Musk had twins with one of his top Neuralink executives, Siobhan Zilis, last year. While Musk did not directly confirm the report, he tweeted, “I’m 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 tweets in the past — some he’s followed through on and some…not so much.
Via Twitter, he pledged to fund Flint, Michigan, to help residents access clean water — which the city recently used to unveil clean drinking fountains in schools — and also responded to a call from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky to send Starlink satellites at the start of the Russian invasion. We’ll have to see if Musk follows through on his promise to increase child care benefits, or if this is just the whimsical statement that his promise to transform Twitter is starting to look like.
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