“Why are members of Congress more upset that Elon Musk became a trillionaire than they are that Somalis have defrauded our government? Can someone please explain it to me like I’m five?”
Here’s the simple, like-I’m-five version first:
Imagine two things happening at school:
- One kid (named Elon) builds super-cool rocket ships and cars that don’t need gas. Lots of kids and grown-ups want to buy them because they’re awesome and useful. His stuff gets so popular that, on paper, he now has a crazy-big number of play money — the first “trillionaire.” Some teachers get really mad and yell, “This is unfair! The whole system is broken! We need new rules to take some of his money!”
- At the same time, a group of other kids sneaks into the classroom cookie jar and snack cabinet (the money everyone chipped in for treats and help for kids who need it). They lie, make fake lists of snacks that never existed, and take hundreds of millions of pretend dollars for themselves — fancy bikes, big houses, trips. A lot of these kids happen to be from the same neighborhood group. Some teachers hold big meetings about it and want to catch the thieves and fix the rules so it can’t happen again. Other teachers mostly stay quiet or say “don’t be mean to that neighborhood.”
