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Comment by friend_and_foe | Hacker News Reader

Musk has a million dogecoin bounty for anyone who can prove that claim. There are interviews with his dad where his dad says basically he bought some emeralds from an Italian guy who was chiseling them from a rock in the ground. That's a far cry away from an emerald mine fortune, when I think "emerald mine" I think John of God level fortunes, and they used what money they made to move out of South Africa. From my understanding they were middle class at best.

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Middle class does not exist in South Africa. Look up their Gini index. If you think wealth inequality in the U.S. is bad, it’s 10 times worse in South Africa

I find entertaining the show of cynicism when Musk himself started the rumour about the emerald mine [0]:

> Elon Musk: "... In South Africa, my father had a private plane we’d fly in incredibly dangerous weather and barely make it back. This is going to sound slightly crazy, but my father also had a share in an Emerald mine in Zambia."

Musk's father gave an interview [1] where he explains what the mine business was about. He also shares that he had to sell his "ocean going yatch" to send his family money overseas. Musk is not a trust fund baby, but he wasn't coming from middle class either.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20140729222547/http://www.forbes...

[1] https://www.the-sun.com/news/7911051/elon-musks-dad-errol-em...

A private plane is not a private jet, and a sailboat is not the Fulk al Salama. I'd bet the private plane was a little cesna and the "ocean going yacht" was probably a medium sized sailboat or catamaran. Rich? I suppose, but not wealthy. Upper middle class maybe.

> A private plane is not a private jet (...)

https://www.the-sun.com/news/8014711/elon-musk-dad-errol-cha...

Elon Musk stans are something else. The loops they jump through to convince themselves that the teenager who was walking around with emerald from his family's mine in his pockets was not a rich privileged kid are out of this world.

https://www.news24.com/news24/bi-archive/elon-musk-sells-the...

It's perfectly fine if you want to idolize a rich kid who multiplied his family's fortune, but let's keep it grounded.

> convince themselves that the teenager who was walking around with emerald from his family's mine in his pockets was not a rich privileged kid

Most emeralds (and other precious stones, too, but especially emeralds) that come out of the ground are essentially worthless.

https://www.amazon.com/Gemhub-Quality-Emerald-Natural-Wrappe...

There you go. Now you, too, can "walk around with emeralds in your pocket". 12 bucks.

> Most emeralds (and other precious stones, too, but especially emeralds) that come out of the ground are essentially worthless.

As the legend goes, a 16 year old Elon walked into Tiffany's with two emeralds in his pocket which he sold for around $2k only to learn that they were worth 30 times that value.

You can Google for the references if you'd like.

"The legend"?

https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-min...

Yeah, I think we're done here.

I don't idolize anyone. I just find this recent vitriol from people who 5 years ago fawned over this man as a visionary exhausting and like to inject some sanity into the discussion. He was a darling to the progressives, until he expressed opinions. Now he's a lepper who never had a good idea in his life and paid other people with his inherited old money wealth to build several of the most successful companies in the world for him. Spare me.

The first article you linked to says it was a twin engine Cessna that he got for fifty grand. The second one says him and his brother sold 2 emeralds for 2000 bucks. Well off, sure. Comes from money? I don't think so.

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