Calls to abolish billionaires, or at least curb their growth, have gained traction across many capitals in the West, where extreme wealth has risen to unprecedented levels.

Elon Musk’s pay award of a potential $1 trillion in November will make the Tesla owner not just the richest person in the world, which he already is. If Musk gets the full pay package, he will become the richest person in history.

Musk would soar ahead of the world’s other billionaires – a record 3,028 of them, according to Forbes magazine, estimated to be sitting on $16.1 trillion of global wealth.

The difference between the world’s rich and poor hasn’t been so stark since the peak of Western imperialism in the early 20th century.

Currently, about 831 million people live at or below the level of extreme poverty a

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