Michael Strain, director of economic policy research at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank in the United States, said that in an era of rising inequality, billionaires get a lot of attention, much of it negative attention, but the existence of super-rich people like Musk and Bezos is actually a boon to the American economy.
Strang believes that billionaires create value for the economy many times their net worth through innovation.
Strain's perspective differs from other political and economic commentators who argue that billionaires are the face of America's wealth and income inequality problems and exist only because of failed policies that hollowed out the middle and lower classes and redistributed money to the wealthiest people and corporations.
But billionaire innovators — rather than billionaire heirs — may be the exception, Strain said.
As an example, he cited the estimated net worth of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at around $170 billion. However, Strang estimates that Bezos has created about $8 trillion in value for the U.S. economy, extrapolating from a 2004 economics paper. The paper found that innovators accounted for only 2.2% of the value created by their technological innovations as income.
"These nationalists and radicals have it wrong: We should have more billionaires, not fewer. Billionaire innovators create tremendous value for society," Strain wrote in an op-ed on Tuesday.
Strain acknowledged that there are areas where America's capitalist economic structure could be improved, but the solution to those problems lies in providing financial aid to the poor, not hating billionaires.
In fact, billionaire innovators should be considered "worthy of emulation" for children, Strain added, praising a range of business icons. He called Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a "social media pioneer" and LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault a "sophisticated CEO."
"None of these people are 'policy failures,'" he said. "We shouldn't wish they didn't exist, but be excited that they exist. The value they create dwarfs their net worth."
Strain argued that economic inequality based on household income has actually leveled off or even declined over the past decade, although it's worth noting that other measures of inequality have actually worsened in recent decades.
A study by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the top 0.1% of earners will see the fastest wage growth in 2021, while the bottom 90% of earners will see a slight decline in annual income.
Those with the highest incomes also appear to be getting a bigger share. In 2021, the top 1% of Americans earned 14.6% of all wages, twice as much as 45 years ago. Meanwhile, the Economic Policy Institute said the bottom 90% of earners took back only 59% of wages in the economy as a whole, the lowest level ever.
According to another study by the Economic Policy Institute, this huge wealth gap could cost the U.S. economy approximately $300 billion per year. Another group of researchers found that raising the wealth tax on billionaires to 2% would almost make up for that amount.