16Comments
Jake Paul, notoriously brazen YouTuber-turned-boxer, has pledged $10 million to the United Nations (UN) to help world hunger on the condition that Elon Musk, equally cocky multi-billionaire, puts forward $6 billion. Posting the pledge on Twitter, Paul also said he’d only fulfill the deal if his tweet gets 690,000 retweets. After all, what's the point of fixing global problems if you can't get a few internet points along the way?
Paul’s pledge was in response to a Twitter spat that occurred last weekend between Musk and David Beasley, director of the UN’s World Food Programme. Musk responded to a CNN story where Beasley suggested a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals could help address world hunger with just a fraction of their net worth.
“$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don’t reach them. It’s not complicated,” Beasly said in an interview in CNN's Connect the World.
In response, Musk tweeted: “If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
Beasley replied saying that headline was slightly inaccurate: the sum of money would not categorically solve world hunger, but it would help prevent “geopolitical instability, mass migration, and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation.”
Musk, however, was not convinced and continued to challenge Beasley, tweeting back: “Please publish your current & proposed spending in detail so people can see exactly where money goes. Sunlight is a wonderful thing."
After news stories of the Twitterstorm went viral, Paul decided to jump on the bandwagon, tweeting on November 1: “Yo @elonmusk if you donate $6 billion to the UN to end world hunger I’ll also donate $10 million if this gets 690k retweets”
Musk is yet to respond to the ultimatum.
