Have you ever heard that Elon Musk’s per-second earnings are $656? I thought at first it was a joke, but when I did the math, it turned out to be true.

As of March 2024, Elon Musk’s assets are approximately $194.4 billion. Dividing this by the number of seconds gives a per-second pay of $656. In other words, he’s earning an average Japanese person’s hourly wage in just one second. Doesn’t that seem a bit out of touch with reality?

Since just thinking in terms of per-second earnings doesn’t really make it feel real, let’s convert it to a per-minute figure: $43,000. With the U.S. average annual income at about $53,490, Musk is earning the equivalent of an average American’s yearly salary in just one minute. That works out to his net worth increasing by $100 million in less than a week.

But here’s what’s interesting: where does this enormous per-second income come from? It’s not mainly salary or bonuses—it’s mostly valuation gains on corporate stock in companies like Tesla and SpaceX. So even though the per-second earnings are high, it doesn’t mean cash is coming in every second. There are regulatory hurdles to selling shares, and he also needs prior disclosures. You also have to consider the potential impact on the market.

Elon Musk’s asset portfolio is complex. Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, and The Boring Company. If the value of these companies changes, his per-second earnings will change as well. In fact, there was a period when his net worth fell by about $9 billion after acquiring X. And in November 2021, his assets reached $34 billion—so there’s significant volatility.

Even so, the fact that his per-second earnings are $656 symbolizes the concentration of wealth and economic inequality. It makes sense that he holds the position of the world’s third-richest person—after Jeff Bezos and Bernard Arnault.

But the story doesn’t end there. Elon Musk promised to donate $6 billion to eradicate world hunger, yet in reality he only transferred about $5.7 billion worth of Tesla stock to his own foundation via a donor-advised fund (DAF). Legally, there’s no problem, and it probably has tax benefits. But it also looks like he’s rerouting funds that are needed to respond to an urgent global crisis.

What’s brought into focus by the gap between Elon Musk’s per-second earnings and the ambiguity of his charitable activity is a mismatch between enormous personal wealth and social responsibility. It’s precisely because he’s an entrepreneur earning $656 per second that the impact of his actions on society is so large. While he continues to symbolize innovation, this is also becoming an era where transparency and ethics in how the wealthy use their wealth are increasingly being called into question.