Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who each own companies dedicated to exploring outer space, are earning a lot of money and that is making some politicians very uncomfortable.
Musk responded to criticism of his massive fortune by former presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, saying he plans to use his cash to help make life "multiplanetary," Insider said Monday.
In a Twitter post, Sanders said the Tesla chief executive and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has more money than the bottom 40% of people in the United States, a level of greed the senator thinks is not only immoral, but unsustainable.
Responding to the disapproval of his fortune, Musk shared his vision for the future, tweeting he's "accumulating resources to help make life multiplanetary & extend the light of consciousness to the stars."
An article published by the website Clean Technica called Sanders' comments "truly ridiculous."
Sanders had invited Bezos to a hearing on the rising "income inequality" in the U.S. earlier this month, but the billionaire declined.
U.S. liberal legislators have called for higher taxes on billionaires like Musk and Bezos, saying they are not paying their fair share to the government.
Musk, who also runs SpaceX, in 2020 said he planned to send a million people to Mars by 2050.
Musk said he was "very confident" the first SpaceX Starship may land on the Red Planet in 2026, though some experts raised doubts about the timeframe.
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is currently the second-richest person in the world with a fortune of $170 billion, next to Bezos, whose wealth is more than $180 billion.
