Elon Musk has spoken out about the reason he has so many children... and it's left people online questioning his motives.
For those unaware, the 50-year-old Tesla CEO currently has seven children - one-year-old X Æ A-Xii, 15-year-old triplets Kai, Saxon, and Damian, and 17-year-old twins Xavier and Griffin. His firstborn son, Nevada Alexander Musk, tragically passed away aged 10 weeks in 2002.
Now, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal earlier this week at the WSJ CEO Council Summit, the billionaire revealed that his reason behind having so many children is because there are "not enough people" on the planet. Seriously...
The topic of Musk's fatherhood arose during a discussion about his latest technological triumph: the Tesla Bot, which Musk stated has the potential to one day become a substitute for human workforces.
Speaking to the WSJ virtually, Musk then stated: "There are not enough people, I can’t emphasize this enough, there are not enough people. And yet so many people, including smart people, think there are too many people in the world and think the population is growing out of control. It's completely the opposite."
Recently, the decision for families to have fewer children in an effort to reduce humanity's impact on the planet and environment has become a popular choice.
Earlier this year, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry received an award from charity Population Matters, after the couple spoke out about their choice to have no more their two children, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor.
Population Matters went on to say in a statement, per The Independent: "Having a smaller family reduces our impact on the Earth, and provides a better chance for all our children, their children, and future generations to flourish on a healthy planet."
Supporting this claim, a 2017 study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden concluded that each child that is born into the developed world produces a carbon footprint of 58.6 metric tonnes each year they're alive.
However, Musk disagreed with the belief that people need to have fewer children, saying: "I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birth rate and the rapidly declining birth rate. If people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words."
When asked by the WSJ if that's why he has six children, Musk quipped: "I try to set a good example. Gotta practice what I preach."
Following Musk's comments, people have been voicing their perplexed responses on social media:
"People literally cannot afford to have more children, I’m not bringing a child into this world if I can’t financially support it. I’m still paying off student debt," one person wrote.
A second added: "People cannot AFFORD children. Go tell the top 1% to have more children @elonmusk since they are the only ones who can afford them."
