The billionaire entrepreneur has become hugely influential, making his opinion on sensitive topics highly anticipated.
Elon Musk is arguably the most influential boss in business right now.
One of his tweets generates comments on both sides.
Musk is not someone one ignores. Even left-wing progressives and liberals in the Democratic Party recognize that, while Musk’s personality is divisive, he has a colossal aura and influence.
They do not hesitate to point it out to him. This was the case on Dec. 16 with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), often referred to as AOC, one of the rising stars on the left of the Democratic Party, after the billionaire suspended the Twitter accounts of journalists who had criticized him.
“You’re a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one. I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power plus erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you,” AOC tweeted.
For those who doubt him, Musk is at the head of three companies which are at the heart of their industry and the technological revolution. He is the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report, the maker of electric vehicles which pushed the auto industry to embrace the green revolution.
Decline of Legal Immigration
He is the founder of SpaceX, the rocket company which completely reignited the dream of humans living on Mars within the next few years. And since Oct. 27, he is the owner of Twitter, the social network considered the town square of our time. Twitter is where opinion makers and trend setters meet. Some experts go so far as to say that the platform sets the agenda for discussion across the world.
Musk has also broken down the wall between business and politics by getting involved in almost any subject this year. For example, he did not hesitate to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden and to interfere in foreign policy by proposing a controversial peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
He has given himself the mission of rebalancing, according to him, free speech between conservatives and liberals on social networks by reactivating the accounts of Republicans, banned on Twitter for violations of the rules of the platform.
It is therefore no surprise that he has become the hero of the right, who express unfailing admiration for him on Twitter. Aware of his influence, the billionaire wants to weigh in on almost every debate. This is what he has just done on the very delicate question of immigration.
Musk, who was born in South Africa and grew up in Canada, believes that immigration, especially legal immigration, is a major strength for America. He consequently considers that the decline of legal immigration over the past few years should worry politicians. The tech tycoon took the opportunity to offer his thoughts in response to a tweet commenting on a Washington Post article on the decline of legal immigration.
“Immigration is America’s superpower,” wrote Alec Stapp, Co-CEO of the Institute for Progress (IFP), a non-partisan research and advocacy organization dedicated to accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress. “This should be a huge concern for US policymakers.”
Stapp attached the Washington Post’s story below his tweet.
“Absolutely,” Musk commented.
Businesses Struggle to Find Workers
He didn’t add anything more, presumably considering that the article and Stapp’s post were sufficient. The Washington Post article article related the difficulty many businesses have in finding employees, especially non-college educated workers. It’s a real challenge for low-paying and physically demanding industries such as hospitality, agriculture, construction and health care.
The situation deteriorated particularly with the pandemic, when the Trump administration completely cut off the flow of entry of immigrant workers into the United States.
The number of new legal immigrants peaked in 2016, but fell by 6% in 2017 and by 9% in 2018, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The fall was 50% between 2019 and 2020.
This contributes to a shortage of workers which has harmful consequences on the economy. Many economists believe that one of the factors contributing to the rise in the prices of certain goods and products is the fact that there is not enough labor to meet demand.
