December 6, 2022
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been making headlines at record speed as of late. Between acquiring social media giant Twitter and finding ways for SpaceX to make its way to Mars, the 51-year-old South African entrepreneur and scientist, has had his full lately.
However, little is known about Musk’s relationship with the Italian American community. Although he has no known Italian lineage, that does not mean Musk has been quiet about his thoughts about Italian culture. Perhaps his most highly publicized comments on Italy came earlier this year when Musk warned that the country was in danger of losing all its people in the future if they did not address record-lowe birth rate trends.
The Tesla Chief Executive Officer stated on his Twitter feed at the time, that “Italy will have no people if these trends continue.”
The comments were made in response to Italy’s increasingly declining birth rates, which have dropped as low as seven newborns per thousand inhabitants. In contrast, Italy’s death rate increased to twelve per thousand, thus illustrating the alarming trend of increasing deaths and decreasing births that have plagued the Italian peninsula recently.
Musk’s comments came in May 2022, during a period when Italy was just beginning to rebound from the aftermath of a COVID-19 pandemic that had paralyzed its economy and social progress. Despite Musk’s comments, Italy still holds the world’s ninth biggest economy, boasting a population of more than 60 million people with a GDP per capita of 29,600 Euro.