The ingredients for power

Elon Musk is arguably one of the world’s most powerful people.

  • He is the richest person in the world with an estimated total net worth of over $400 billion.

  • He has more than 200 million followers on X, the social-media platform that he owns.

  • His other companies include Tesla and SpaceX.

  • America’s president, Donald Trump, has chosen Mr Musk to serve as one of his advisors.

But which of the following gives you the most power? Money, political status, social-media influence or something else?

Poll not working? follow this link: https://economistfoundation.typeform.com/to/wQpsv6x0

Comments (177)

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  • For me,his political status and the fact that he is expanding with other companies have the utmost importance and significance to how Elon Musk possesses this much authority/power. But first things first, let's break it all down. "How can each of them influence his strength?"
    number 1:net worth/money. As indeed they make people respect you, but is it really the most powerful? There's hundreds of people that have money. People will just view you as a rich person. Even if you're the richest person, they'll seem to downgrade that. What's your opinion on it?
    number 2: according to "management today":Musk achieved a social media slam dunk. He used social media to popularise his negotiations with the authorities from whom he needs permission to start tunneling.
    As you can see, Elon used social media to promote his investments. But any moment, it could all go poof, social media could be down forever, like the tiktok ban that almost happened in America, a person can get canceled on social media, conveying the loss of everything.
    Third:other companies. Elon expanding his build by making other companies is a very smart move, because if maybe one goes down, he still has tons of others by that time. Tesla is 15 years old, but its rank is third out of 29 huge car brands.
    Fourth:political status. I think being close to a president, like musk, will gain a person so much power and respect,sense if a president chose you to be one of his advisors,very respect from people. Also with Elon's other huge influences/companies, it will be a great impact to Strength. What do you think?

    1. I absolutely agree, As political statues plays huge roles in most Elon musk's power and influence.

    2. Personally, i think there's two things that give power; but first obviously you need one thing to access to that power, and it's money. Without money you won't have much influence on the social medias and without money you can't success in the political "world" without money.

    3. I agree because Musk is a powerful man, with lots of money and a lot of social media influence. Each an every step had been important to achieve the second milestone.
      In other words, first of all, money made him popular and even getting in touch with the US government.
      He supported Trump and when he won the elections, Musk got selected as one of the advisors for the government
      The reality could just be seen by observing the stocks of Tesla and SpaceX which boomed up by almost 15%, biggest jump in the history of these shares.
      Social media influence had helped him a lot in sharing his viewpoints along with changing the mindset of many.
      But, now when he has got such a respected Political Post, along with his ever growing business, he is just growing rapidly. Now since elections, it has been much easier for him to grow his businesses and his social media influence.
      Summary, wealth and influence has made him get into politics, which is now his one of the most powerful asset.

      1. Do you think it's fair that wealth and influence can 'get someone into politics'?

  • In my oppinion, one gets power by making connections with other people, especially if these are politicians or the owners of multinational businesses one is associating with. For this, it is important to know how to convince people that they want your ideas; give them what they want in a way you are benefited. Connections increase one's fame, and even fortune. Then one can use their fame on social media platforms to gain a larger following.
    Not everyone is capable of making strong relationships with other powerful people, but when done right, that is how someone can become the next Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.

    1. I agree with that statement because if you want power, you need a stable support of people and let them follow you and make connections with other people. I also agree with "one can use their fame on social media platforms to gain a larger following" because you will need a social media platform to bring attention to others and make them want to follow you.

    2. You bring up an interesting point dazzling_personality. Do you think this has something to do with why Trump has chosen Musk as an advisor?

      1. Thank you for the recognition, Amanda.
        Yes, I think it might have to do something with Trump's choice. In my opinion, Trump associates with those who follow his ways and beliefs, and he does so even more if that person can increase his power. Let's think about it, Mr. Musk is the owner of SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), PayPal... That is a lot of power right there, and let's not forget he has over 200 million followers on social media. By making a connection with Musk, Donald Trump is sure to get more followers on his X account, more voters, more money, more opportunities for whatever plans he has for the future.
        And Musk is a smart man, he knows how to guide Trump in the "right direction", so that is just one reason more for him to be chosen as an advisor.
        I hope my reply helped.

      2. Yes! Of course there is something that has to do about why president Trump has chosen Musk as an advisor.

        And here are some answers:

        1 - first, it is a great honor for Mr Musk to be chosen by a president to be one of his advisors, like, let's imagine ourselves in Musk's place, how would you feel if you were chosen by a President to be one of his advisors, of course,so honored!, and clearly this is why, because he is rich and influential, intelligent, responsible, and a lot of more goods.

        2-second, also Elon Musk has an intelligent thinking, and this is because he got the idea of having a lot of companies so when a company goes down, he will not be so worried or he will not be down as the company, no! He will have a lot more companies other than this company so he wouldn't get down and this is an intelligent idea come in my opinion.

        To conclude, I'd like to say that it's a big honor for musk to be chosen by a President and also being so famous and mostly 95 or 96% of the world, know who is Elon Musk, and this makes you intelligent, influential, more famous, everyone gets honored when they choose you or when they can have you to help them in something.

        Thank you, topical talk, and typical talkers too!😊

    3. In my opinion you´re right, although it´s not only important to establish a connection with people. I think that to be a person like por example Elon Musk you have to have more things that. Is vcery important to have political and social power and of course money.

      1. Thank you for your opinion, fair_dolphin. You're right, connections aren't the only important factor when it comes to power. It's true that politicians are very influential, social media is a way to talk to the world, and money can get you almost anything you want if you have enough of it. Thanks for making me realize that.

    4. I mostly disagree with you, dazzling_personality. This is because I do think you have to make connections to have power, but how do you make these connections? You have to have the money to make the connections which is why I think money is the most important ingredient for power. Whether you’re rich from your family, from a family business or even you have loads of potential, you need that money to get where you need to be. Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, owns Space X and Tesla and is Donald Trump’s governmental advisor. Because of his money, Trump chose Musk as he can get out of sticky situations with his money, as well as Musk has 200 million followers on X (formerly known as Twitter) who follow him because if money. So in my opinion, you need the money to get there because it will lead to the two other things: social media influence and parliament position. If you are not rich, you need the potential to become rich so set your mind to it, and you can have the power, like Elon Musk.

      1. Thank you for your opinion, humble_elderberry.
        It is true that money is a very important factor for gaining power. Thinking about it, money can buy you almost anything if you have enough of it, it can be used to bribe people into following you, and it can bail you out of sticky situations.
        However, I still believe in some cases it is posible to make connections without having the money. For example, imagine a broke college student gets an amazing scholarship to a prestigious university. That student scores top marks, and therefore gets a great job and associates with others working in the field. There are people who have gotten famous when they were poor; but it is true, having a lot of money is necessary to make good connections because it makes the process so much easier.

        1. I partially agree with your thoughts, dazzling_personality. I do think that sometimes we can make connections through knowledge and intelligence with the reasons you explained and it will be good to do this. However, we have to bear in mind that this doesn't and will not happen frequently. We only have to look at the percentage of children who go to a grammar school which is 5%. This is astonishing! Therefore children and university students have less of a chance of getting good marks that get the connections they need.
          Addressing another point, I believe that money is a key ingredient for power as it helps you to improve everything in a new business so they can reach the profits they need. To build a stable business, people will need money and knowledge, so I still believe your point is mostly valid as we still need to use our brains, heart and determination if we want to get where we need and want to be.
          Thank you for replying.

    5. I disagree with your opinion, because you can absolute be powerful without making connections with other people, for example your a unknown guy just chilling around, then you have an opinion about a special topic like an ellection for a goverment an you record a video and you publish that and its go viral. Like 1 billion people see it reflect their opinion and decide to agree with your arguments and give another party your vote.

      1. Thank you for your opinion, industrious_science. I appreciate that you see a loophole in my theory; now that I think about it, it is true that you can gain a lot of power anonymously, as in the example you provided. But no one knows who you are, so would the power be for you, for the video you posted, or for the person in the election who got all the votes from the video?
        Your opinion is totaly valid, it's another point of view I can take into consideration, so thank you. But what does power mean to you? To me, it means having control over people, especially those who look up to you and those who despise you. I'm guessing for you it means having influence over others' opinions. Whatever it may be, thank you for commenting, I will take your words into consideration.

  • Elon Musk`s influence is a complex phenomenon, driven by a various factors . I believe that social media plays a crucial aspect in amplifying his voice and shaping his public view as well . With over 200 million followers on X, Musk can disseminate ideas , shape public discourse , and mobilize support for his ventures too. His vast wealth, estimated as over $400 billion , undoubtedly confers significant influence . however it is largely circumscribed by the boundaries of this business ventures . Social media, on the other hand, transcends traditional limitations, connecting him to a global audience and enabling him to shape the public opinion . Musk`s role as an advisor to president trump is a significant , but conventional . Many other advisors and politicians possess similar levels of influence within their respective spheres . Social media, however is a game changer empowering Musk to mobilize support , influence the global conversation and shape the narrative. So i believe that ultimately Musk`s mastery of social media has cemented his status as a global thought leader, revolutionizing the way we think about influence and power. In conclusion,as i reflect on the significance of social media in amplifying influence, I am reminded that this platform is not just a tool, but a key to unlocking unprecedented levels of connectivity and impact . As we move forward towards the digital era, it is clear that social media will continue to play a vital role in shaping few important aspects of life and those who master it will be the ones shaping the future .open for opinions.

    1. How has Elon Musk's use of social media reshaped the way we view influence and power in the digital era?

      1. Elon Musk's use of social media reshaped the way we view influence and power in the digital era by from what I had learned I found out that Elon Musk shared to his millions of followers misinformation and negative comments on a refugee charity.After he sent/shared these comments his followers started sending death threats to the refugee charity organization.So how Elon Musk reshaped the way we view influence and power in the digital era is that using social media can be dangerous because as you can see sending or sharing false information can be very dangerous from people threatening that person or organization or the people will sent death threats to them sometimes I say sometimes because some people don't have many followers or aren't that popular so sometimes it isn't, but for this instance it's Elon Musk, Mr.Musk owns three companies named X(known as Twitter),Tesla, and SpaceX he is also the world's richest man and now in 2025 an advisor for Donald Trump, so he is a very power man and of course he is popular having over 200 million followers, so if he spreads false information his fans/followers will of course believe him because when you're following someone you think they won't lie to their fans, but sometimes they are lying or not. In conclusion Elon Musk's use of social media reshaped the way we view influence and power in the digital era is that the way he uses it is dangerous.
        Thank you for reading.

        1. Coherent_eagle you raise some important points. Do you have any ideas about how Elon Musk could be held accountable for his comments and the impact they have?

          1. How Elon Musk could be held accountable for his comments is that based on what I have learned, what makes a person accountable is that they stood responsible for their deeds and that they show proactive behavior instead of being reactive to their circumstances.The impact Elon Musk's comments have is that it is people might get hurt, or might ruin their life this can also make social media conflict which will make arguments between people. Elon Musk also could be held accountable for his comments because why would he post the comments?He might have been forced, but I don't think that anyone would force him to post those comments/misinformation because right now he is president Trump's advisor, he's the rich man, and is famous with over 200 million followers on his company X so I think that if he was forced to post those comments I think that you would want to do that because you could be in prison for life and of course he would have bodyguards.

            In conclusion I think that Elon Musk did send these comments,so Elon Musk could be held accountable for his comments and the impact they have could be dangerous and might change their life, or not.

      2. Elon Musk's use of social media has completely changed how we see , influence and power in the digital world . With millions of followers anything he posts reaches a huge audience instantly. This kind of influence can be both powerful and risky . While he uses social media to share updates about his companies and ideas , although there have been times when his posts have led to many controversies . For example , when he shared negative comments about a refugee charity , his followers reacted strongly , and some even sent threats to organization .

        This situation shows how social media , when used by someone as influential as Elon Musk , can have serious real - world consequences. Most people tend to believe famous figures , and if they share false or harmful information , it can spread . Musk's example proves that social media is not just a place for casual posts , it is a platform that can shape opinions , affect businesses and even cause harm it is not used responsibly.

    2. I really appreciate your writing skills passionate_aspect.

      Could you answer me whether How does Musk's role as an advisor compare to his influence through social media platforms? Does one weaken other?

  • Hello,
    I chose “something else” in the poll above, but WHY?
    Well, I hardly believe that your own power is not based on money, political status, social-media influence or anything else rather than knowledge.
    In my own perspective, knowledge is power, knowledge is the main source of power, an example of someone who has much knowledge is Sir. Magdi Yacoub, he has knowledge and now started to teach countries and organizations his knowledge.
    Knowledge drives the planet for better and sustainable vision, all scientists have knowledge and not anyone can take a place for a scientist, Artificial Intelligence, AI, can take a place of many fields but it would never take a place of a scientist with that amount of knowledge; AI could be replaced by scientists and not vise versa.
    On the other hand, people might think that money makes a person’s charisma like Elon Musk, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and others and not knowledge. But have you ever thought how would you react if you have knowledge? You would control the whole universe.
    Thank you!

    1. Hello, I just want to say that money is too important I agree that knowledge is important but without money you can’t make something with the knowledge that you have. So money is how your life goes.

      1. Interesting ideas.

    2. Hi helpful_construction,
      I partially agree but there are actually two sides to power, good power and bad power. Unfortunately, most of the time people use bad power like I think Elon Musk does. However, you are talking about good power. Good power is made up of kindness, good decisions and wisdom. Bad power is made up of money, a lot of followers on social media and mostly money. Elon Musk has a lot of money- he’s the richest person in the world- so he thinks he has the power to do many things he can’t actually do. Money leads to the other two things: social media influence and parliament position. Donald Trump sees that Elon Musk has a lot of money so he wants him on his own side. Musk also sees this opportunity to gain more power and buy his way into a relationship with the president of America. When Trump chooses Elon Musk as his government advisor, Musk knows that he has increased in power. However, this is starting to become bad power.
      Money also leads to social media influence as Elon Musk has a lot of followers on his X account just because he is the richest person in the world. Therefore, everyone wants to be on his side because they know he has a lot of power due it his extremely high amount of money. As everyone wants to be on his side this has produced over 200 million followers on his platform X. So Musk has all the ingredients to bad power.
      Back onto your point, helpful_construction, if someone has good power and knowledge then I agree that they could control the world in a way that gives them so much power it could get rid of bad power once and for all.

      1. This is a very considered response, nice! Do you think we can do anything to reduce 'bad power' ?

        1. Hello Fin @ Topical Talk
          In the way I see it, to reduce bad power is to give a penalty to the person who publish it aloud.
          Though it's not only about a penalty but it's about making people believe that it's not good.
          BUT HOW?
          Well, if many people agreed not to announce bad power and advised others about how it's bad maybe more than half of the universe would be stuck to good power.
          If every person convince a friend and a friend convince another and another about the impact of bad power everyone on earth would be by right route.
          Imagine you could be the one who change the whole world.
          Thank you

    3. Amazing point helpful_construction, but I'd like to point out some flaws in it. Yes, knowledge does drive the planet for the better, but it's popularity that allows that knowledge to be noticed. Right now, I'm sure there must be a genius sitting behind a camera while he explains new scientific theories and answers to his audience of 15 subscribers. Is he knowledgeable? Yes. But do others know about him? I'm guessing not, and this is why I think even with knowledge, if you truly want to achieve power, popularity is the only way to do so, and what gives you popularity? Social Media and Political status.

  • In my opinion my answer that gives him the most power is...
    Social media influence- Social Media can be used to expose something or even tell people about something. Elon Musk created X(Twitter) which gave him more than 200 million followers since he has a lot of followers it gives him a lot of chances to say his latest creation or say something about people. It also helps him expands his business (Starlink, X, SpaceX, Tesla etc.)Because Social Media can spread information very fast. His companies have been famous because of his social media reputation since he has lot of followers it gives him the chance for people to patronize him the more and give him more power and influence.

    1. Do you think Elon Musk's social media influence has played a major role in the success of his businesses, or do you think his companies would have thrived without it?

      1. Yes. I think Elon Musk social media influence has played a major role, it has increased his business career along with his political status. Without the media's influence, I don't think Elon Musk would be as famous as he is.

  • I think social media gives a lot of power nowdays. If you have followers on any social media people will listen to what you have to say and your message can spread super fast. However, I think the real answer is a mix, if you have influence, political status and money, you probably have the most power. But honestly, even just one person with a strong message can change the world.

  • I chose something else because in my point of view, there are three special things else that make me extremely powerful. Ambition, knowledge and behavior are very powerful words that make me strong consequently I can face any disaster that happens in my life furthermore I can achieve any goal.

    KNOWLEDGE
    Think about it! How can illiterate people be powerful even if each one of them has a lot of money? If every one of them has money, he or she will spend it rapidly in things that are not important because they are not knowledgeable. They will not be benefit by the money.

    BEHAVIOR
    The person without behavior will not be loved by anyone. This person will be known by his or her terrible behavior. When your behavior is great, you will be a successful person. If your behavior is good, you will not find any impediments in your life.

    AMBITION
    How can someone develop himself or herself or winning a competition without ambition. Ambition is hope so without hope, you will be motionless without any improvements.

    To conclude, I believe that ambition, knowledge and behavior are the most important words that anyone must have to make his or her life easier and to be a powerful person.

    1. I understand where you are coming from with the Behavior, Ambition, and Knowledge but with those important words is social influence incorporated. This means that his knowledge helped him build his social media platform X, his behavior was constantly monitored by social influence, and his ambition grew as he got more followers on X and started growing other businesses like Tesla and Spacex. So I for one can't choose because I feel that something else and the social influence built his success and persona today.

  • Elon musk is one of the most powerful people in the world.But his power mostly comes from his companies, like Tesla, SpaceX, and X/Twitter, and he is worth a lot of money. But what really gives him this power? Some might say it's" his money "or maybe" his influence through social media". But I think If Elon musk or nearly anyone had political status he would've more effective and powerful to the world. Why? Because with political status, you make decisions that affect everyone, not just the people who use your products. For example. instead of building rockets to go to Mars, he could pass laws or start global programs that would push countries to invest in space exploration. Or instead of selling electric cars, he could make rules to encourage the whole world to switch to clean energy . Political power means you're not just sharing ideas, you're creating,lasting changes that everyone has to follow Even though Elon musk is already powerful, imagine how much more he could do if he had political status. Do you think having political power would make him better at shaping the world? Or does he have enough power through his companies and influence?

  • In my opinion, political status and making connections cause you to have the most power. Despite having money, you can be wealthy and still not have impactful power. And social media can help enforce that, however when it boils down to it, there are a plethora of people that if that was the case, we'd have an office full of influencers. Now, political status gives you the most power because you are tied to the lawmakers. You're tied to people who you can talk to that can enforce your opinions and make them laws. And connections give you the most power because if you have connections high up in the social ladder, you can get them to enforce your plans in their field, or even get higher in the social ladder yourself. Which, gives you power.

  • For Elon Musk, I think that his political status gives him the most influence currently. His current political power means he can get funding for his projects like SpaceX and Tesla, and he has the power to influence the government and future of America due to his ties with the current president Trump. Elon could affect how laws pass, what projects get passed, and a whole bunch of things that he has heavy political views on.

    1. As well as laws passed, can you give me some other examples of what Elon could affect?

      1. Besides laws passed, I think Elon could possibly affect his international relations between other countries, and because he's a close ally of Trump, could affect how those countries view America. A recent topic that has been covered was Elon's unfair endorsement of a far-right political group in Germany. Of course, Elon already had a strong influence before becoming close allies with Trump, but I feel now with Elon being associated with Trump, having similar political views and agendas, could make other countries see Elon as an extension of Trump. This can cause Germany to see their relationship with America differently.

    2. As well as laws passed, can you give me some other examples of what Elon could affect?

    3. You are very right on this matter, but what will be the effect of this, how could his power reshape the US. Could you help me get a better understanding.

      I believe his power will be brought down before President Trump stands down from his position. My reason for this is
      Congress will not agree with everything the two say because they were put together so that the government remains neutral. Elon's power won't be a problem for too long.

      1. Hi, valuable_land, and thanks for an interesting comment. You mention that "they were put together so that the government remains neutral". What do you mean by that, and do you have any evidence to support it?

        1. When I say congress was put together so that the government remains neutral I mean if there is only one leader and one person's Ideals being heard the US would not be very successful in my opinion. The evidence to support my claim is that Article I of the United States Constitution established the legislative branch known as the Congress. Congress creates laws that influence the daily lives of all Americans and is considered to serve as the voice of the people. From what I have learned two branches were created, one side having different ideals than the other. This was made the way it was to not give anyone too much power; the prime example of why the president of the US needs permission before making a decision and enforcing it. I believe that congress will look out for what's best for the people, and even if I don't agree with everything Elon Musk and trump is saying congress still has to agree or disagree.With on persons ideas the US could fall into chaos. Does this answer your question?

  • In my opinion, I had at first felt like money was what gives you the most power but now I am starting to believe that it is not true. Although, you can buy followers on some social media platforms those followers are not real people so they will not be able to defend you or buy the products that you produce. I also thought that because you have money you can buy your way out of situations however this statement is not always true. There have been some examples of when people have tried to bribe others but have been brought to the public's attention. This led me to the idea that social media is what gives you the most power. By having people that support you, it will allow you to grow your career and the money that you have because people might feel like they have a connection to you so they would likely trust you and buy whatever product that you might sell or even defend you. It will also make people less likely to believe whatever the news is saying and instead follow what you are saying.

    1. Interesting thoughts powerful_glacier - can you tell me more about why you say people are less likely to believe what the news is saying?

      1. People are less likely to believe what the news is saying because throughout the years, there has been a lot of misinformation on various platforms. This is due to either accidental mistakes, or financial reasons. News can spread misinformation on accidents by using an untrusted and unreliable source to use on their news companies. Misinformation can be spread for financial reasons on the news, because if many people find the topic intriguing, it will start to trend. The people that are viewing the broadcast will start to get ads, which will benefit the news station by giving them money.

  • I think that Elon Musk's social media influence gives him the most power because since he owns the platform X, Spacex, and Tesla. First, he could use X to push his posts out more and make his opinions seem more valuable than others. First, He could use Spacex to make headlines and push him and his political views out to the public, persuading people to follow him. Finally, he could use Tesla to make faster and more interesting cars to push his platform X and Spacex to repeat the process all over again.

    1. I disagree because social media is not stable there might be time when someone fall of the lights or or someone attract the viewers and all of your movements are on the public and i you did something bad the whole world will be against you. The biggest and worst problem is that social media is on the open and you will face millions of conflicts since you are popular, so it is totally risky to rely on social media as the main source of power as in a second or one act you lost everything.

  • I think that what makes Elon Musk so popular is because of his social-media influence. For example Jeff Bezos isn't as well known as Elon Musk even though he has a net worth around 200 billion dollars. So I think the fact that Elon Musk posts on X or other platforms makes him more popular. Elon Musk is also known to have a lot of money, but I think he what makes him more popular is how he invests that money into AI, in Space Exploration or for his company with electric cars called Tesla. People always hear about how he manages to invent amazing things like Neuralink, OpenAI, Paypal or SpaceX who made the people's live a lot easier.
    So, in conclusion I think his popularity comes from social-media, but also from his inventions who made people lives better.

  • In my opinion, I say that the most source of power that Elon musk has is his social media influence. I say this because ever since Elon Musk bought twitter and named it X, he has had a lot of followers and he has made a lot of money and has become a world-wide influencer of the greatest of people. I say that his influence on X is exceptionally great and important because he would have a wider reach, different brand partnerships, a lot of authority and trust, people's cultural impact, different career opportunities, monetization, global perspective etc.
    In summary, I say that being a globally recognized social media influencer can lead to several different opportunities for personal growth, a lot financial success, and different meaningful contributions to the society at large.

  • In my opinion, the ability to inspire and influence others in a positive way gives the most power. Money, political status, and social media helps us reach people but they are only powerful if used for good reasons.

    For example, someone with strong values, empathy, and the courage to take action can create lasting change. Take leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, he didn’t have immense wealth wealth or social media but his principles inspired millions to fight for freedom. So the true power comes from being able to inspire or help others, not just having fame or resources.

    Thank you:)

    1. Thank you for the great comment!

  • The ingredients for power is leadership and kindness with out these features know one can become a leader and have power. Also you need to be strict but not too strict because you will stop people having fun. But when things get serious you can’t be afraid you have to be courageous. If you’re a child don’t forget your voice can be heard. But that is another point listen to what people have to say. Even though you have power does not mean others don’t.

  • I thought about this and actually chose social media influence. We are seeing people with immense amounts of social media influence spreading falsehoods and propaganda. I recently saw a video of a woman with millions of followers who spread a lie saying "people in the UK can now be jailed for 15 years for just viewing far right propaganda." I knew this was an obvious lie so I traced it to a minor news source. There was no evidence for this and not even a government announcement or a major media source were announcing it. It was a blatant lie. I returned to the video, opened the comments and found nobody pointing out this was a lie. Almost everyone and all people with top comments were talking about how horrendous and authoritarian this fake law was. I reported this video for misinformation and nothing happened, instead multiple millions of people have been fed a dangerous lie. This is why I argue social media influence gives people the most power. All it takes is 1 video that tells such a lie and millions of people will believe it.

  • Something else and when something else I specifically mean his job type.His job and owner of the Tesla advertises everything about his car and so many people with enough money will buy it this advertisement will lead to many people knowing his name and political and such then a bunch moneys coming in.His job influences every impact he has today no one would know him if it wasn't for his car.People usually know you for what you do in today's society.Famous actors are known for acting, Owners of big companies are recognized for what they do.Their duties impact others around them to like and respect them for what they do.Your job helps everything fall into place like money, social media impact, politics, everything.Thats my opinion on this stuff and what's most important.

    1. Elon Musk was well known before Tesla. He had companies like Paypal and SpaceX before Tesla.

      1. Thank you for that information!However we don't recognize Elon Musk as the owner of PayPal any more due to the fact he got fired.Also to mention SpaceX has some drama going on that seems quite interesting.On the other hand, this controversy is only giving him more attention and the more controversial things he does the more of a great impact on his bank account does too.Like how he kinda saluted or made the "My heart to you" sign like a Nazi.This is only bringing him more attention which more money come in due to well his stunts.

  • In my opinion, Social media because nowadays people will believe anything whether it's fake or real so you are influencing people in how they think and in a way how they choose to act on their day to day thinking or behavior. Social media is also a huge way on how people connect, how they get informed, and where we spend a portion of a life on so being high in social is a massive impact on us.

  • From my point of view, being powerful doesn't just mean to be rich or to have a lot of followers. There are many other things that I can be very powerful with, for example :
    1- knowledge
    2- Being Brave
    I chose knowledge because knowledge gives me a great chance to be better and improve my skills. Also, I want to tell you that knowledge can make me rich and have a lot of followers.
    And I chose being brave because being brave makes me confident in my life. In addition to this, bravery helps me face problems and gives me the ability to be strong. By bravery I can be very powerful.
    To sum up, I chose knowledge and bravery because they help me become powerful.
    Thanks 💐

  • I chose political position because the president of the United States is one of the most political people in the world and he is also one of the most loved people in the U.S, also the us president asked elon to be his advisor which is a political job.

  • Elon Musk has alot of money however it should not make him have the amount of power he has. Someone with the amount of power and money he has he doesn't use it for good even though he should. He may have helped us with many other things with Space X and electric cars. However, when people have that amount of power it requires alot of responsibilities. Just because somebody has that amount of money doesn't mean he has earnt the amount of respect he believes to have. Also, he is saying that America 'feels sorry for Britain' and he saying we need liberating. Furthermore, he has grown close to Donald Trump, who miraculously won the presidential election back in 2024. His networth is over 400 billion dollars which in my opinion is far too much for a person. In an inaugration rally, he did the Hitler salute which implies that he is a supporter of what Hittler called 'the superior race'. In addition Elon Musk said he would give 1 million dollars to anyone who would vote for Donald Trump.

    In conclusion, Elon Musk doesn't deserve the amount of power he currently has as no matter how much money someone has does not prove if someone is a good person.

  • I chose something else because what a successful person needs is Passion

    1. Can you tell me why, in order to be successful, they need passion?

      1. Because passion provides motivation and resilience which are needed to push through challenges furthermore, when someone is passionate about what they want, they are more likely to stay motivated, work harder, and improve. Passion even makes a journey interesting, and it gives people a sense of purpose which helps them focus even when it takes time. Without passion, success can feel like something useless moreover the person could feel forced and stressed.

  • From my point of view, the most powerfull factor is social-media influence, as it provide the ability to reach and influence millions of people instantly and on a global scale. Here are my reasons:
    The first reason is about reach and connection. Due to social media platforms allow individuals to connect with vast audiences, shaping public opinions and driving cocietal change. Elon Musk with 200millions of followers on Twiter (X) can directly influence a large portion of the global population.
    The second reason is about the speed of influence. While money and political status provide power, social-media influence operates in real-time. A single Tweet can move markets, inspire innovation or rally people around a cause.
    The las t reason I have is about versatility. Social media allows individuals to engage with people across political, economic and cultural boundaries. It amplifies the impact of money and political status by acting as a megaphone for ideas.
    Summarising, power depends on how do you use the different factors you have.

  • In this case I think what made him powerful was ultimately the money because at the end the day no one says no to him no one acknowledges him irresponsible deeds. People do this because he could afford to buy someone's life three times. In some cases money equals power and power equals fear and fear equals control and that is what he has overall control.

    1. What do you mean by, "he could afford to buy someone's life three times."?

      1. What I mean is statistically he could buy someone's life and no one would speak up or do anything about it but I said all of this to say that people who are high in power and money do thing that are wrong yet they are overlooked.

      2. What I mean is statistically he could buy someone's life and no one would speak up or do anything about it but I said all of this to say that people who are high in power and money do thing that are wrong yet they are overlooked.

    2. In addition to "respectful bell" money is his major source of fame and power because it is his money that brought about his companies, Elon Musk invested a huge amount of money in starting his business and now making profit out of it which is now bring to him a huge amount that he is using for other things. it is because of his money that he was able to do things like buy space X and build industries that is responsible for many things. because of the money some people obeys him cause they feel lie his money can go a long way in helping them.

  • In my opinion, I believe that a majority of Elon Musk's power is from social media influence. Although many individuals know Elon Musk for his vast wealth, social media helps connect him to a global audience through the use of different platforms. For instance, with more than 200 million followers on X, he shares his perspective about a variety of different topics. With overwhelming fame, Elon Musk will most likely change peoples' minds on how they see the topic, seeing as how Elon is trusted.
    In my perspective, I can see how overwhelming amounts of money can affect some people. As many individuals will inform themselves that they could have vast amounts of money like Elon Musk one day if they keep putting forth the effort. However, almost every single one of Elon Musk's followers or audience would have never even had information about Elon Musk if it wasn't with the guidance of social media.
    In conclusion, Elon Musk's social media influence plays a crucial role in the result of his power and influence all over the world.

  • In my opinion, I believe that political status and money are the main important factors when becoming a powerful and influential person in this generation. I think this is because having political ties as in Elon Musk promoting and advocating for Trump is very important. If Elon Musk has this type of status towards the president of America, who knows what he could be capable of? It's a higher chance than in the future, he's able to ask Trump for favors, money, or anything else of that nature. Moving on, money is also a key factor. I think this is because if he's the richest person in the world with a net worth of $4.17 billion dollars, he's able to buy anything or anyone he pleases. He can easily buy any company that he pleases and still be left with a fortune left.

  • I think social media influence is the most important. Sure, with money he can everything. Sure, he can have much influence with his political position. But these positions won't give him much influence or power if the public decides to boycott him. People will find ways to show their hate toward Mr. Musk, even if he is the richest person in the world. Sure, he will find ways to evade most of it, but ultimately, if he will suffer from it. This is why I think social media influence is the most important. It gives him the power to influence masses of people in his favour. With him also owning one of the most significant social media platforms, he is more influencial than ever. He can decide what is true or not, at least on his platform. Aditionally, with social media becoming the new mainstream media, he is able to control the entire information flow for those who are using his platform. As people say, information is power. This is why most authoritarian regimes control the information flow in their countries, because they want to maintain in power. And it works: most of the inhabitants of these countries have a positive image from their country and their leader. If Musk has social media influence, he will be able to paint a narrative for millions of peole, basically becoming the leader of a group and putting him in a very powerful position, in which he can't be thrown out of, as he was not democratically elected.

  • The reason why Elon Musk is so popular and powerful is because of his money for someone to be such rich and smart he is able to do things hundreds of regular people could not and receive fame around the world .

    1. Do you think he is deserving of his power due to his wealth and intelligence?

  • In my opinion Elon musk is very smart and he does have too much power for one human being but he could use the power for good or for bad

  • In my opinion, political status is the thing that gives most power as political status control everything because if something is illegal political status could give the ability to make it legal and give you the ability to easily control a whole country.

    Social media influence is very risky as the power of a person whose power is social media influence is depending on people who love him and if you did something that they hate you could easily lose them and now you have no power and if you are having a conflict you will easily lose.

    Money is also risky as he could suddenly have his stock market shares falling and lose alot of money or suddenly another industry come and people leave your products and take other products an example is that before petrol was what many people buy but now it is all about electricity.

    Being an advisor of the american president is of course not giving all power but small political power could make huge changes.

  • I think money is what gives you the most power. I think so as. -
    1. More wealth result in a "superior feeling" resulting in earning respect.
    2. As money is success in professional fields. Everyone gets drawn to the riches.
    3. Wealthy have more opportunities. Like, the rich gets invited to tv channels, events faster. Enabling more influence to others.
    4. No matter the point, rich peoples opinion carry more importance as compared to the poor.
    5. Money is bossy. It result in more control over others.
    6. Riches easily make political connections. (Elon Musk was chosen as the adviser of Donald Trump's advisor.
    In my opinion- Being rich, having social-media influence, having political status and earning respect are the factors that makes a person powerful and successful. And being rich gets you the rest of the factors. So in my opinion being rich gets you the most power.

  • Money has a really strong effect on people we know, whether they're close to us or not. If they're close to us, money can change how they live, and that affects their families too. Also, having lots of money makes it easier to choose a job you really like, instead of just any job to get by.
    People with a lot of money can also help their communities by giving to charities or hospitals, and that helps the whole country.
    But it's important for rich people to use their money in a good way, not a bad way. And they should stay humble and not be snobby just because they have money.

  • In my opinion money gives the most power.I think this because people will go crazy for money. For example take Mr.Beast his most popular video "$456,000 Squid Games in Real Life" he offered people a lot of money to recreate the the popular show "Squid games". This video put people to the test and the people who won got money but other people who did not win would only walk out with 10% of that money. Although some people might say at least they still walked out with money, the money doesn't mean anything because compared to 456,000 dollars ten percent is nothing. Mr.beast is an example of a very powerful man due to money like Elon Musk. Money gives humans the highest ranks and respect rather than political status, social media influence, and any others.

  • In my opinion, money is too important because without money you will not start your project or even pay some people that you will need to help you in your project so I think money is too important for a person’s life.

  • I think that what gives Elon Musk most power is his political power. Donald Trump is a very known person from all over the world and since Elon Musk has a connection with him that makes him as known as Donald Trump.
    The more fame you have the more power you get from all the people that support and like you. I also think that beacause he owns such famous brands like Tesla or X makes him gain even more power since when people support a brand or an app most of them go research atleast a bit about the creator or the owner.
    So as a conclusion his connection with Donald Trump and his big brands give him the most power and fame.

  • In my opinion, social media influence is something that is crucial when it comes to having a lot of power or some power. Yes, there are other factors that also contribute to power that are also very crucial. Such as Political status or other things. But despite this, the factor that really influences people into things such as your opinions nowadays is social media. If we were to have been in the times where social media did not exist or was not big, other things could contribute more to how much power you have. For example, since social media is a world wide thing, you cannot only get comments from people who agree and disagree with you, but since the audience is so big you can influence people into agreeing with your opinion. Therefore giving you the most power unlike money, which in my opinion sometimes doesn't play a big role with how much power you can get, yet political status is a without a doubt something that can determine your power, since a lot of people get influenced by politics. Despite this, a lot of people also don't take interest in politics.

  • I think that money and intelligence and money are the most important factors, money can buy land, businesses, technology which provide long-term power. And if you combine intelligence and money, you can get far in life. Like Musk, creating a software company at a young age and selling it for a lot of money and then reinvesting that money was a smart move. His knowledge got him started, but money kept him going. Now because of all of the money, he has an audience which listens, trusts and supports him. He has an influence in peoples every day life whether we realise it or not.

  • In my opinion political status and his brands gives Elon Musk the most power and his connections with other high status political figures, I say this because overall Elon Musk is already well known and famous due to his expensive merchandise and his net worth as the wealthiest man so that already puts him in a high position as well known., also Elon Musk's social media platform X with his 200+ million followers online so that adds more to his repetition. He is also in a higher position as of recently as Donald Trump the president of the United States chose him as his advisor which gives Elon Musk more recognition with the republican team so his political status adds respect to his character and whoever respects him. I think this overall gives him the most power due to his new recognition which gives him more power to those who entrust him and that's coming from his brands, social media platforms, political status, and his overall net worth.

    In conclusion I believe his brands, political status, and social media platforms brings him the most recognition as a person although being open minded there might be other factors to where his fame and power comes from and how he can gain more power for his image and exterior especially as him being a major influencer to tons or even millions of people.

    1. How does his work as an inventor and businessman also give him power?

  • We all know that Elon Musk is a world wide popular person. He is known by all the people of various countries. How is it possible? It may be due to his money, political status or social media influence. Anybody else can be famous for his many aspects, but without hardwork and self confidence nobody can shine. Elon Musk is one of such person who is known for his excellence in hardwork and self confidence. These are the main ingredients of his power. This only made
    him to be successful in his life and became a very big role model for youngsters.

    1. Is Elon Musk only famous for positive reasons, or do some people have different views on his influence and actions?

  • In my opinion , I don't think that all of the votes count because if you have online influencers then it doesn't matter because if you cannot speak to real people then why should be in power because if you are in power then you need to be respectable kind and caring and most people online don't show how they act in real life. I think that the most important part of having power is actually knowing how to speak formally and having good interactions and being kind and caring because you want people to support you not hate you in addition to this I think some type of experience in school is needed to be in power.

  • With his wealth that is about 400 billion dollars and over 200 million followers on X ( TWITTER ). Elon Musk can have powerfull impact with the people not only in the US but even worldwide with out meaning it he allready supported one company before when he just mentioned the similar mobile application name on the social media so we can imagine how powerful will be just in a few words in moments this powerfull man became not only a powerfull on social media but also he became a powerful political person since he became one of the US president advisor so he can influence public opinions and even international relations.

  • Hello topical talk,

    I think that the main things that makes a person popular are money and political status. the money is very important as you will not buy or invent anything useful. and you will not be popular if you don't have any political importance you wouldn't have communication with any popular person so you wouldn't be a worldwide sensation. But in fact, you need both to be known all around the globe.

  • Money gives you power because if you have money you can control people and resources. When you have money you can setup industries, farms, businesses and have many other opportunities. You will be able to buy and own almost anything that you desire if you have money. You can use money to make your own businesses so that you can create job opportunities for people. Because of the money you have and the impact you made, people will respect you and put you in high places thereby giving you the power to influence people and help the lives of many.

  • I believe that social-media influence is the most controlling and effective in our modern world. Although most of the information posted on social media platforms are fake, they are still the most effective on the audience's perspectives. As the media is developing, it is dragging more and more "targets"... US. Almost everyone on the planet has at least one social account, so influencers are reaching almost everyone and that is why some social media influencers take advantage of their powerful affect by spreading fake news just to gain more viewers that unintentionally help them earn money and profit. The way some influencers use to attract users is maybe like selling some fake products or making up fake stories which could have a huge impact on the user's own information about a topic and their perspective. I think social media influencers shouldn't receive that much recognition as some of them contribute in harmful things. Some of the detrimental harms social media influencers can do to effect the user might be seen in many different ways through videos or posts, like:
    1. Posting videos or links that include viruses that are immensely damaging to your device's software and could be used to hack the user's personal information.
    2. Sharing incorrect information that is believed by people which makes them share it with their families and friends.
    3. Some posts are aimed to retell real global issues in another , one-sided tone that could be offensive to some people, which is very wrong because all opinions should be respected in a talk especially if it is serious.

  • I don't think there is a definite way Elon Musk gets power from as every way to get power is the result of the other . Simply , no way is the one that makes all ways for instance , being famous on media can help you to be rich and open companies leading to a better political statue ; as well as ,having companies can help you be rich , famous on media , and have a better political statue . There are a lot of other perspectives for this , but those are just examples .
    If anyone got only one of those he might get all and those are the cycles :
    firstly , being famous , this could make you get money,by the help of your followers, or the money the media company gives you . By having money , you will build companies or businesses that will help you to have a better political statue .
    sencendly , having money , this means building companies or businesses then being politically and on media well known .
    after that , being politically famous , this will help you to build companies or having businesses as you are famous politically , getting money and become famous on media .
    finally , having businesses or companies ,will make you famous on media and politically giving you more money .
    To conclude , this means you can get all of these things in any order by working hard as Mr Musk did .

  • The ingredients for power are resources ,great leadership and the ability to negotiate and alliance to extend Nations power and influence alone musk also has political strength also these are the ingredients of power and definitely Elon Musk has it

  • In my opinon, political status is very important for power over others. At first, I was thinking that money ic crucial to have some power, but I realized that money isn't so important. I think that politics is all about power. Elon Musk is currently an important figure in politics in USA. In political science, power is abillity to influence the actions or beliefs. I don't think that Elon Musk would have so much power if he wasn't a friend of new-old president Donald Trump. He surely has influence on American goverment and future of USA and the whole world. For sure, he has a lot of more influence on people because many people follow him on his platform X where he brings out his opinions. Also, many people are inspired by his success. I can say that social media also increases power level, but not as much as political status. Elon Musk has all three of the factors that are essential for power. I think that he is the most powerful person in the world right now.

  • In my opinion, knowledge is the most important thing because knowledge sharpens our skills like reasoning and problem-solving. A person with information is also more ethical and emotionally healthy than some one with money but no knowledge. Knowledge is a powerful instrument for bringing about a good change in community or nation. So I think that knowledge is the most powerful thing to a person.

  • Hello ✋, I rode all your comments there's people who say that money is everything but in my opinion it’s not , because Mr Musk is the richest person in the world, yet may he don’t have family . Also , have a , yet it make for him a stress in his live. So , money is not everything.
    Sometimes times your money will not save your lives. And thank you for reading 📖.

  • I THINK that money give him more power for if he is rich he have polical influce social media followers that why it said that money rules the world for if Elon Musk says something it better to belive than if a poor nan says anything
    THANKS.

    1. Could you explain why you believe wealth affects the validity of a person's opinion?

      1. When a indiviual is rich that brings him power he can buy everything or almost all then with money he can buy any social app (that will bring about the social media and will give him fame and from fame to polical power) so if I am in place I IN PLACE I did or rather choose money even if they say it is the ROOT of all evil it helps a lot.
        THANKS.

      2. When a indiviual is rich that brings him power he can buy everything or almost all then with money he can buy any social app (that will bring about the social media and will give him fame and from fame to polical power) so if I am in place I IN PLACE I did or rather choose money even if they say it is the ROOT of all evil it helps a lot.
        THANKS.

  • Why i think social media gives more influence because mass action through social media makes the person feel more supported and he/she may gain position

  • In my own opinion, I would say that what has given ELON MUSK power is his position which is the type of money he has, He is most richest man in the whole world with an estimated total net of over $400 billion ,This also involves him owning companies like Tesla and space X. But if he was poor , I don't think he would have the position of being one of Donald Trump's advisors neither will he have power.

  • According to me all the four option play a crucial role in the increasing power and influence of elon musk .
    1-as he is the richest person in the world of ofcourse with money fame and power come alongside . There are various examples in the world that the person who has money automatically becomes influential. As per my point of view the person who is very rich is kost of the times very knowledgeable and experienced and so they play a crucial role in making big and tough decisions which makes them even kore powerful.
    2-whereas on the other hand social media control also affects their power and control over the world. I. Today's world social media plays very crucial role in making up the mind of youngsters and changing their point of view . With so much influence on social media he can make some influence to the world . Also he owns the X company and so he may censor the news that he doesn't want to spread and encourage news that he agrees on .
    3- as he owns large companies like tesla , spaceX , neuralink etc he has spread his legs in all the sectors making himself more influential and powerful in various important sectors. Also musk knows that the upcoming world is all about AI and so he has strengthened his base in the same fields.
    4-as for the political career musk would have a direct role in shaping the policies related to technology etc. also this position would solidify his role on the global level . By being involved in politics he will get the access to high level discussions on the national and global level .these all will make him more powerfull in the world

  • According to me all the four option play a crucial role in the increasing power and influence of elon musk .
    1-as he is the richest person in the world of ofcourse with money fame and power come alongside . There are various examples in the world that the person who has money automatically becomes influential. As per my point of view the person who is very rich is kost of the times very knowledgeable and experienced and so they play a crucial role in making big and tough decisions which makes them even kore powerful.
    2-whereas on the other hand social media control also affects their power and control over the world. I. Today's world social media plays very crucial role in making up the mind of youngsters and changing their point of view . With so much influence on social media he can make some influence to the world . Also he owns the X company and so he may censor the news that he doesn't want to spread and encourage news that he agrees on .
    3- as he owns large companies like tesla , spaceX , neuralink etc he has spread his legs in all the sectors making himself more influential and powerful in various important sectors. Also musk knows that the upcoming world is all about AI and so he has strengthened his base in the same fields.
    4-as for the political career musk would have a direct role in shaping the policies related to technology etc. also this position would solidify his role on the global level . By being involved in politics he will get the access to high level discussions on the national and global level .these all will make him more powerfull in the world

  • In my opinion, political statues gives the most power, because if you are the government then you can control the lower branches below you as you have more power than them. My next reason is when you have a great political position you may be able to engage in trade for your country/state which may make you more widely known whilst giving you more power. My last reason is that a high political position normally helps you be more respected. What is your opinion?

  • I see that power comes from political status because it says to the whole world that this person is very important in this world. Also, money helps, but money can also come from being famous on social media so social media is second. But only pure richness can make people see you as just a rich person. Elon musk has all three, so he has a lot of power, is known on social media, and Donald Trump assigned him to one of his political advisors. Elon musk also believes in the right to talk freely so he is very trusted and powerful in this world.

    1. What do you think makes Elon Musk's approach to free speech so trusted?

  • In my opinion, I believe that, money is the most powerful. Money provides the greatest flexibility and control. With enough wealth, you can buy influence, fund political campaigns, acquire media companies, shape public opinion and invest in technologies that change the world. Unlike political power, which is temporary and social-media influence, which can fade, money creates lasting power by controlling resources, industries and even governments. However let's divide each one and say why I believe that money is more powerful.

    Political status: It's temporary and limited by laws, elections and public approval. Even the most powerful politicians lose influence when they leave office, while billionaires like Musk and Bezos retain power regardless of who is it charge

    Social-Media Influence: It depends on public perception and trends. A social-media following can disappear overnight due to scandals, censorship or loss relevance. Money, on the other hand, allows you to buy media companies (like Musk buying X) and control the conversation.

    Something else (Innovation, Knowledge): These are powerful but often need funding to be truly impactful. A genius without money struggles to turn ideas into reality, while someone with money can hire the best minds and fund groundbreaking research.

    In conclusion, money is the most powerful because it provides lasting control over resources, influence and decision-making. Unlike political status or social-media influence, wealth allows individuals to shape industries and maintain power regardless of trends or elections.

  • I believe that political status would give you the most power. Many politicians have the freedom to make a choice whether or not many people agree with it. Such as new, controversial laws like in New Jersey, people are forced to sign up for health care or they will be charged a large amount of money during tax season and racist laws in Arkansas that allows discrimination towards business owners. Governors have control over these laws and citizens have no rights to do anything about these at all besides being upset and frustrated. Sure, people with tons of money are able to purchase or create anything they want like Elon Musk, but is he able to create laws for all citizens to follow? Furthermore, social media influencers could only possibly control part of a population, but not all as many have conflicting opinions. However, these conflicting opinions can be concealed by politicians, as they are the one who makes the decisions for all people.

  • All these elements contribute to power in different ways, but social media influence stands out as one of the most significant and influential in today's world. While wealth certainly gives him access to resources, controlling platforms like X (formerly Twitter) allows him to shape public discourse and influence millions of people directly. Owning a platform like X, with over 2000 million flowers, gives him direct access to changing public opinions, influence online debates, and can even set trends in technology and culture. In today's world, the ability to control information and sway public opinion can be even more powerful than money. Unlike wealth or political connections, which operate more behind the scenes, social media influence allows immediate, direct communication with massive audience, shaping opinions, markets, and even politics instantly.

  • From my point of view, social-media influence is the most powerful out of them all. Since, out of social-media, and thousands of viewers liking and watching your videos, the platform you are posting on will offer you money to post even more. And, not only you get a bunch of money, but you also get fame. The key is to post content that other people will like, and you enjoy doing. If people like your content, but you don’t like it, and it’s hard for you to keep going, then most likely you won’t enjoy your job. So it’s important to post what you like, but that isn’t boring for others. And, if your viewers adore you very much, then maybe they will want you to run for president or listen to your political position. Then, your power will be extremely high. But at the same time, it isn’t necessary to be president to have power. You can just be wealthy and be famous on social-media, and you will already be full of power, and do what you like!
    So, I suggest social-media is the most powerful source because the other two things can come from this.

  • I believe that money gives you the most power. While both political status and social media influence are important, money is usually the reason behind them that makes those things possible. Money helps him get involved with political people who can make decisions about the economy and the world. With money, Musk can hire the best workers, build new things, and make smart investments that can change industries. Another thing is that money allows him to build his companies, like Space X and Tesla, making big changes in technology. Social media can help spread ideas, but without money, you can't always turn them into a reality. Money can turn ideas into reality and shape the future of industries. Musk's wealth has made him to not just be a "social media guy" but someone who actively shapes the future of technology. Money is the most powerful tool because it makes changes in ways that political status or social media alone cannot. In fact, Musk's money has helped him gain political influence and social media power, making his audience even bigger.

  • Within our current society social media is an extraordinarily powerful tool. Everything runs from social media, most of the news which young people receive come from social media. Not only does social media allow us to communicate to anybody, anywhere at any time but it also keeps us up to date with the most recent trends. Social media decides what's cool and what isn't societies' norm. Social media is a wonderful innovation which has evolved over the years, multi-millionaires credit their success to social media positive relationships have been formed because of social media and we have learnt about our world though social media.

    Young people are extremely impressionable and turn to social media for education and advise, but this isn't always the most useful tool. Taking the recent immigration riots for example, there were hundreds of live streams showing what was happening with no filter, which ultimately not only acts as propaganda for young people but also promotes this violence and influenced young people to turn up with no idea about the consequences they may face. From what I know and the young people I work with, I can confidently say that they would trust social media over a news outlet or a politician.

  • what are the ingredients for power? Interesting question though for me i would go for money and intelligence on the masses. money indeed what makes a man if not what he has, how much he owns and how much he makes. Now Elon Musk is the richest man in the world currently and what did that money give him, it gave his power and there is an ad dage power comes with great responsibilities and elon musk is not only bout the power but he is alsoabout various responsibilities.Why choose intelligence because for man, its the root the success and it comes with hard work and the urge to keep learning more so how does intelligence help, intelligence is the reason for elon musks wealth if not for his intelligence and his desire to learn and know more, he wouldnt have made it who knows?

  • I believe money gives the most power because Elon Musk's business could benefit Donald Trump's policies. In Donald trump's 2024 campaign to become president, Elon Musk created a supporter lottery. He announced he would give away one million dollars each day to a random person living in a swing state if they signed a petition. which made Donald Trump win the election and he chose Elon Musk to be a presidential advisor. Money was a key factor Elon musk used in helping Donald Trump win the United states of America President because he used money to support Trump in his election and helped Elon musk gain his trust.
    I also believe that social media has helped Elon Musk to gain power . X the social media platform owned by Elon Musk has helped him gain both power and influence. Recently, Elon musk supported a particular party in the German election on his X account , this a key example of using social media to gain power and influence other people's decision.

    1. I agree with you because i also believe that money gives more power , when you have money you have power and authority over some certain things ,like you said when Elon Musk created suppporter lottery it made Musk trust him and he even had to make him one of his personal assistance ,what a power.

  • In my opinion what gives people the most power is political power, you can have money and be the richest where ever you are does not mean you can tell them what to do or influence them because you were not given any authority. You being at a political position can increase the level of things which you get or you do. Elon musk as the advisor of a president Donald Trump, gave him power over other people but not the president. You having power can actually influence the people or most people around you for example if you are use to travelling at night and someone that has authority over you can say that once it is 7:00pm no one should be seen outside you that have night jobs would be forced to start working in the morning or in the afternoon, which can distract your activities or make you reschedule your work if you are a parent. or now what if a set of people have been given work to do at night and you get this kind of information you might be forced to disobey and if caught you might get punishment or sanctions. In all , I just want to say that you having power might be able to change things whether good or bad positively or negatively which might affect people in many ways as long as authority or power has been handed over to you.

  • As for me, money gives power the most. Someone can be a citizen and can pay people in higher authorities to do things the way they like. I believe we have all heard the saying 'money moves mountains'

  • Elon musks power is world wide because he could influence people around the world ,he could change elections ,he could change global politics. His social media platform x influences people world wide to change global discussions about climate change ,housing and world wars around the world.

  • I think that you have the most power if you are involved in politics because you can decide whether you do something or not and it could actually change the world .On the other hand, money could also change the world because you can donate a lot of money and then stop wars.

  • Personally , I think Elon Musks colossal amount of money( roughly 400 billion dollars ) makes him able to : buy huge companies , create new technology like cars and launch satellites into orbit . He has become so rich from a cycle of him spending a large amount of money on an expensive project/vehicle which people buy and return Musk is given even more money than before. Elon Musk knows this and is continually growing more popular and being asked to have bigger roles in our world

    1. What can be a problem with one person holding lots of power?

  • I think that money gives you the most power. Elon Musk is the richest man and person in the whole world and some people argue about whether he is the most powerful. If you have money, then you can own lots of companies and businesses which you earn a lot of profit. Did you know that Elon Musk has a net worth of $400 billion? It’s astonishing.
    A quite smart fact is that the money leads to social media influence and political position. As Elon Musk is exceptionally rich, lots of people know him and want to have business with him or work with him. This is why he has over 200 million followers on SpaceX (also known as Twitter). All the people follow him because he is rich and powerful and they want to be on his side all the time, even when he makes the wrong choices, just because he is very wealthy and usually buys his way out of tricky situations. So this is why he has the power of social media influence.
    Money also leads to his political position. In my opinion, I think that Donald Trump- the president of America- had a tactic to choose Elon Musk as his government advisor. His tactic was probably to choose Elon Musk because Donald Trump knows that Elon Musk has the money so he has almost everyone his side. If people are on Musk’s side and Trump supports him then people will be on his own side too. As well as this, Elon Musk has the money to bribe people and buy himself out of bad situations.
    Therefore, I think that the money gets him the power because that is what leads to everything else. In conclusion, money makes him powerful.

    1. Hi humble_elderberry,
      I agree with you because if someone has a lot of money then they can bribe people to agree with them so they are always on their side. For example, Donald Trump wanted Elon Musk to be on his side as Musk has a lot of money so everyone agrees with him and if Musk is on his side then everyone else will be, like you said. I also find it really astonishing that he has a net worth of $400 billion but I think it’s because he owns a lot of companies and businesses like Space X, Tesla and more. So owning lots of companies I think is an ingredient for power but that also links to money. I agree that money also leads to political position because of Donald Trump choosing him makes a big difference so Elon Musk will get even more money. As you said, because Musk has so much money he has loads of followers too. So Musk thinks he has so much power and is trying to start taking over which isn’t fair because we have presidents and prime ministers and other people to do that. Therefore, I think money is an ingredient for power.

  • I believe and choose something else because I believe that respect can give you the most power. I say this because, for example, if everyone respected you, that would mean that they would most likely agree with your choices and not get mad at what you choose. They would also follow and listen to you.

    I do not believe that money, political position, or social media influence can give you power over people. Money can only do so much when it comes to power. Money cannot buy power. Sure, you can get some people on your side but money cannot earn you respect. You can be the richest person in the world and still have little to no people to side with you. Having a valid opinion and respect will get people on your side, which means you will be more powerful. Political position could get you power, but your political position can mean nothing if you are not respected. This can also go the same for social media influence. Followers and subscribers might mean you have people on your side, but if you make decisions that are not respectable or not be respectable yourself, you will start to lose them.

    For these reasons, I believe that respect earns you the most power.

  • I think that Elon Musk's social media influence shows the most power. He has over 200 million followers on X. Whatever he says it's likely that all of his followers will believe him. This gives him a lot of power because anything he says whether it is bad or good, his followers will believe it. For example, Elon Musk had given a negative opinion on a refugee charity on social media, and the charity started giving hateful comments and threats. He also used this power to give a candidate an unfair advantage. During the election Elon Musk made a live stream. This live stream had given one candidate an advantage and a better chance of winning. Based on the things Elon Musk did in the past, I can tell that his power mostly comes from his social media followers. It's true that some of his power comes from money, But I think most of it is from Social media. His influence is spreading good and bad things across the world. I think that money is a close second on where most of his power comes from. With all of his money, he could get almost anything he wants. To prove this, he used his money to buy Twitter which he changed the name to X. I would say his companies show the third most power. This is because, he gets a lot of his money from his companies making him the richest man in the world. Overall, Elon musk has a lot of power, and that power is a lot of responsibility. As long as he uses his power to bring more good than bad, he should be responsible with his power.

  • In my view, Elon Musk has a lot of power, not only because of one of these factors, but because of all of them as a whole. He has a lot of influence over people due to his posts in social media, as he can convince them just with his opinion. He has a lot of power over the country due to his political position. And of course lots of people admire him because he is the owner of huge bussiness, what have given him a lot of money.
    What I want to say, is that to have a huge power over the world you have to have many ways of communicating with people, many ways of being able to show your ideas, and a great way of explaining them so people believe you, and follow your advises, it's not enough to have only one of these characteristics.

  • For me, i belive his social status is most detrimental to having a lot of power.I believe this because have social influence can cause millions of people to trust your judgement and or reasoning on things, such as political beliefs or religious beliefs.Political beliefs are very important as if you believe one thing and have high social influence they most likely will follow without question, all they are basically doing is following what others do.Having money can be very important but having just money will not cause others to trust you and your choices.This is why i believe social is most important.

  • Hello
    Yeah about this topic I think that what made him powerful I social media because I you are rich but no one knows you then people will be like who is this guy so I think what made Elon musk powerful is the 200 million followers and knowledge of him.

    Thank you for your time

  • In my opinion, his political status plays the most important role of his power. Especially when Donald Trump himself chose Elon Musk as one of his advisors. With his political status, he easily gains trust from the government and expands his business ideas however he likes since he is not accountable to any democratic system. Not to mention he has popularized the idea of electric cars with his company, Tesla. He has made a huge impact in the world of technology and branded himself as “the CEO of Tesla”. And from that, he gains even more trust and support from people. His decision in business expanding is a smart move. With the support of his political status, he easily gains trust and international support.

  • In my opinion, I feel as if Elon Musk's political status is what gives him the most power. I say this because the way he helps to expand certain companies and how he runs his companies helps him to gain lots of power. So in conclusion, my opinion is that I think that his political status is what gives him the most power.

  • Elon Musk is one of the richest, intelligent men on Earth. However, this man, like all humans, have their own personality. Elon is undoubtedly had one of the highest status' in society even before he became a political advisor for Trump. In my opinion, I believe Elon is a very intelligent individual, but with that comes a responsibility. Many intelligent political leaders in the past have had great minds and but the wrong ideas. This has led to wars, discrimination and society being anti-diverse. Societies rise and others fall. Now, Elon Musk possesses much power and authority over the online and real life world. For example, there was once an influencer, who was arguing against Elon's ideas. Elon decided to rather than respond to these comments, that the influencer would soon be unverified and ruin what that man had worked for. Another example of his power in society, is that he owns many companies and is branching/ expanding into others. These companies and money can be massive play towards supporters. Especially young, influential people could lean towards him, just for his influence and power. If society only focuses on his riches and companies, every other thing could be ignored. I understand these are not meant to be very opinionated but it is important to understand that with him being directly connected to Trump, the wrong laws may come into power as we are ignoring it for his influence and power. We must focus on every little detail of his power. Such as 'Project 2025' (which is a movement to shut down lots of the diverse community) or the 'Pro life' movement.

  • I believe that social media influence is the most important factor in power this day and age. Random people with little to no power could easily rise up and have power and influence over some people, even if they're a bad influence or could cause negative change to the online and real world. People present themselves however they want online and they could easily present themselves as a figure people would follow and listen to, even if they aren't such a good person. If somebody has money, yes they will have some power but, money I believe is something that comes with power along with the other factors. Social media can grant a person anything they want, including power.

  • Elon Musk’s greatest source of power comes from his wealth and control over technology, rather than just his political status or social media influence. With a net worth exceeding $400 billion, he has the financial resources to fund ambitious projects like SpaceX and Tesla, shaping industries that define the future of transportation and space exploration. His ownership of X (formerly known as Twitter) gives him direct access to over 200 million followers, allowing him to shape public communication and influence. However, while his social media presence amplifies his voice, it is his technological innovation and financial resources that truly set him apart. Musk’s control over technology and infrastructure, ranging from electric vehicles to space travel, gives him a sense of leadership that outlasts in public opinion.

  • Money is very important for power because without it Elon Musk would not have X and would not be able to influence millions of people. Also, nobody would know about him if he was not rich. This means he would no have political effect.

  • Power can come from different sources money, political status , social media influence or even knowledge or innovation . While Elon Musk has wealth , a huge social media presence and influence in business and technology , the most powerful factor depends upon how it is used. Money provides resources and control over industries , but political status allows direct decision making that affects a million of people. Social media can shape public opinion , but knowledge and innovation can change the world in long lasting ways. Personally I believe that political power is the strongest because it creates laws , controls military forces , and shape economies. Political leaders have to authority to make decisions that affect millions of people , including business regulations , international relations and national policies. However after reading other student's comments , I realized that social influence also might be equally powerful as it can change public opinion, and pressure politicians to act. This made me think that perhaps a combination of influence and decision making power are the most powerful , as leaders need public support to stay in power , and public voices can drive real change.

  • I think money is the most crucial asset that gives people powers the more because, the money can be used to get the things that the individuals wants or needs, for example when the individual wants to buy things, they do so easily because they can afford it and they can also use it in gaining positions if they wants to. And Elon Musk uses his money to gain other things that makes up his wealth like advancing his company, buying space X, and doing other relevant things that gains him more power.

  • For me I think Elon Musk have all three types of power money, political influence, and social media reach which make him one of the most powerful people in the world. He is the richest person, so he can fund big projects, invest in new tech, and even influence governments through business deals. His companies like Tesla and SpaceX is changing industries and even the future of space travel.

    Politically, even if he is not a president or lawmaker, he was chosen before as an advisor to Donald Trump. That show leaders value his opinion and that he have influence over big decisions. Even without a official role, his companies success give him power over policies in energy, transportation, and space.

    On social media, Musk is maybe even more powerful. He owns X and have over 200 million follower which means whatever he post can spread fast and impact stock markets, business trends, and even political debates. He can reach millions of people directly without needing news channels or politicians.

    At the end, what make Musk really powerful is not just one thing, but the way he mix all of them.

  • I think social media will give you more power. for example Elon Musk he has alot of business and alot of people he has helped and someone like him that holds somany high responsibilities being on social media will be to advance his level of respect he receives from people and as we all know him for X, tesla and the new device he created ( Brain-computer device ) which can be used to adivce humans on what to do.

  • “What we think is what we do” a simple yet ignored thought . If we achieve any one power from options given we can easily achieve others but to achieve any power we need to set goal which is what Elon musk does and he uses first principles thinking method ( about which I have explained in another comment) and for setting goal we need nothing because we know we need to set a goal so do it , we need to achieve it so do it. Even in one of musk’s interview the questioner asked him “ how do you motivate yourself “ in which he told “ I don’t know what is motivation ? If something has to be done then it has to be done” so basically first think and decide what power do you want and achieve it so all doors will automatically be opened. *The main power is your willingness and hunger to achieve*

  • Ingredients of Power is a hard quoting.
    Many people say that the ingredients of power contain money, political power, influence and practical knowledge; I would like to add two more; Struggle and Determination.

    Talking about Elon Musk, he is a great man with intelligence, capability and responsibility. But how did he get here? How did he get the power he holds?
    Elon Musk was.powerful even before Trum made him his advisor, how?

    Well, Musk has seen struggle and Determination while he walked on his path of success. Let's take an example of Tesla:
    1. Money: Musk didn't have enough investment and money while the making of telsa, also, people had yet not recognized it completely. To keep Tesla going, Musk had to invest his own money

    2. Model 3: Musk had a lot of struggles while the making or Tesla's model 3. And the way he solved them, it showed his determination.

    Not only Musk, there are a lot of people who have seen struggle and felt determination while taking their each and every step towards success.
    And whether it is you or me, you name it, we will see these ingredients every time, every now and then, whenever we decide to bake our tasty cake of Success! Struggle and Determination are like the cherries on top of a cupcake with the other ingredients (money, influence etc) which will make our dessert tasty and beautiful.

    Thank you!

  • I feel that political status gives Elon Musk, or anyone, a lot of power. Since Elon Musk has just been named "special government employee" by President Trump, a majority of people will probably think that they will have to abide by Elon Musk because they know who's in charge and who has the higher status. Money and social-media influence has the same amount of power as political status does. With a lot of money you can get people to be on your side, or in other words by bribing them. Nowadays, people believe almost everything they see on social media. So if you're someone in power and you have a lot of followers on social media you can say something, true or not, and they'll believe you and side with you. So with all of that being said, being in a political position can give you a lot of power.

  • In my opinion, I believe money gives you the most power. For example, in Elon Musk's situation at the moment, he used money to buy X and to buy or make people follow him and what he does, which gives him more power. He also bought and founded many companies, which is why he has the amount of money he has now. He's trying to make a way for humans to live on Mars, which costs a lot of money but is also persuading people to join his on the trip or to help. Mr. Musk is also a advisor of the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, which could've cost him much money to get that position unless they were already friends before the election and while Trump was president before.

  • What could possibly give people the most amount of power? The answer is simple, and always has been. Money. Throughout history, the more money you had, the more power you had. Even to this day this stands. Although political status and social media influence are key factors, they don't provide the MOST amount of power. Let's think about political status, for instance the United States presidents. Our presidents have a lot of power, however their power is limited to the agreement and votes of the majority of our people. They can't choose how federal money will be spent, declare wars, interpret laws or even bring in new cabinet members without the approval of the senate. As for social media influence, although it can amplify the voice of many and make people famous, it does not give them the most power. They can have influence on certain people, their fans, but they themselves can't do anything bigger than wealthier people. This brings me back to my main idea, money will provide people with the most power. Money can give way for people to buy themselves influence, create innovations, hold campaigns, create businesses, etc. When you have money, the only limitation you have is the law and even then you have an advantage. When you're rich you can easily bail yourself out of jail. When you have a lot of money, people treat you with a superiority and you already have influence because of it. An example would be Elon Musk, he was already rich before he purchased twitter (now X), he created Teslas, cofounder the payment firm PayPal, founded Space X, etc, through MONEY.

  • We believe that money is directly linked to power because it gives people a freedom to buy and to influence people and resources. This can be used in both positive and negative ways. The fear that comes with his political links is that he might yield power in ways which he should have no direct influence and stand outside the norms of accountability.

  • I believe that Elon Musk receives his power mostly from his money. Without his money he would not have bought X and would most likely not have his social media influence. Without his social media influence, Donald Trump would not have recognised him and he would not have his powerful political position that he currently has.

  • In my opinion, money is almost always a vital ingredient for having power. Having just money, however, will rarely lead to power. It is when you make the right investments with your money that you can buy social media influence and therefore power.
    Overall, you need a mix of money, political position and social media influence to gain power, however you need money first of all to gain influence on social media. In class, we discussed how you are most likely to have influence over millions if you have lots of money. This is what Elon Musk had done to gain masses of power.

  • In my opinion, what makes Elon Musk one of the most powerful people on Earth possesses this power due to the large amount of money he has . Just think about this, in this materialistic world, what is the thing that attracts the people most ? Strangely enough the answer would be ,money. It is directly responsible for the amount of people that you could potentially reach out to. As mentioned he has a massive networth, many followers and one of the most successful business of the the century and his position as the advisor for the president of the USA , this all does not require social media influence or political position to be made, just money is enough. It is more like a foundation to achieve it all.
    Money, is the most influential entity in every industry and even normal aspects of life, people tend to believe that the one with money knows how to make the right decisions and decides what is right for us. It is this money that enabled Elon Musk to buy Twitter ( currently X ) , boost SpaceX and Tesla to great heights and also become one of the chief advisor of president Trump. We can say, that money can buy quite literally, social media and its influence and the political position.
    This certainly does change it all like starting off with EVs becoming a trend due Tesla to encouraging the world to have sustainable space tech to deciding what is right for the nation. It also changes the way how people perceive you and how you directly or indirectly play a role in their lives.

    1. You have made some interesting points. What might be some risks of wealth being a determining factor in achieving political power?

  • I think money gives Musk power more , this is my reason ,imagine when you a the owner of the tesla company and the founder of spaceX not only that you still have other companies wont you feel the power? actually its money that gives him power,money stops nonsense and it speaks power

    1. Please could you explain what you mean by 'nonsense'?

  • For me I say that money is the main ingredient to power. I have my reason to say this because with a lot of money you can get a lot of things in life and you get a lot of power with money. For example if you become a politician you can pay people to vote for you and you can bribe the police to not arrest you or press charges on you. And if you want power in the social media world then you can just pay people to follow you on like X ,Tiktok, ect. This is why I say that money is the main ingredient to power.

  • What I think gives a person most power of the 4, is option 4. How a person gains his power, in my opinion is through connecting himself to the public thus by having a political presence. This is because they get to see what the public thinks about them, and if they get to their minds and successfully change their opinion, then these are the ones that become the followers of the person.

    Getting the control of the public is not everyones cup of tea, but if someone does finesse it then they are definitely the one INCHARGE. They become the ones who the public has belief on and which leads the public to large decisions that they take collectively which kind of makes the deal one sided.

    So at last, I would conclude that what defines a persons power is the public's trust that they have.
    THANK YOU

  • In my opinion, it is not one thing or another that makes somebody especially "powerfulI" in not only one area, such as politics, but globally or universally.
    To be that powerful one also has to achieve an amount of recognition as well as go through some intermediate steps, until being powerful.
    For example, only having a lot of money wouldn't make one have a high political status. And neither does socia-media influence make one a decent politician.
    This is arguably a reason why Elon Musk recently got involved in global politics, entering the party congress of the AfD or being announced to have a high authority in US president Trump's cabinet to attain a new step of power and not only have money, but also political power.
    So the ingredients of power aren't one specific, abstract thing or achievement, but consist of many different intermediate ingredients and steps.
    My perception is that political status, money and social-media influence do make one's power increase, but aren't the only criteria, as military power could affect a lot too, because the military is quite useful on planning a coup or to threaten others in order to ussurp power.
    Moreover, connections to other people in government authorities may contribute to an increase in one's power, too.
    In total, there are many steps and ways to become powerful, which are not just focused on one area, but spread all over the spectrum, which cannot be defined by one specific word or term. It is a matter of time and progress to reach a status of having power.

  • In my personal opinion Elon Musk can express and show his power by using social media but without saying he is. For example on X (twitter) he has over 200 million followers and that is approximately 2.47% of the people in the world which not sound like a lot but think about it there are 8.1 billion people on this earth and 200 million is quite the hefty amount for one person being followed . As well Elon Musk can take advantage of the 200 million people that follow him and can spread false and negative information to take over the minds and this false information can spread around the whole world and since he is a very powerful man he can use his social media accounts to brainwash people into believing and recently using his social media accounts to spread false information about the US elections and how Kamal Harris vows to be a communist. On the other hand money gives him an immense advantage since this links to his companies like Tesla and SpaceX , he also made neuralink to take over a human beings mind and he is using money to fund more to his companies and if neuralink (the brain chip) gets put into most human minds except of him he can decrease the intelligence of our future generation minds and make us less productive. Elon Musk can do all of that using his money. He is also had political back up from Donald Trump as he was even taking a massive role in the Trump inauguration making a whole speech. He is now allegedly now taking part in the treasury payment which is vital for the American people and using this political backup he can raise taxes and prices. Thankyou

    1. Thanks for your comment. Have you considered the limits of Musk's intelligence? While he has a massive following, many critically analyse his claims. Also, what evidence suggests Neuralink aims to reduce intelligence rather than assist with neurological disorders?

  • I think social media influence gives him the most power because of all the millions of followers he has and the people that will listen to his posts. He brought X which gives him even more power as well. I think money and political position adds to his power but social media influence is definitely the most.

  • In my opinion, serving the society and being kind gives us the most power. I can say this by so much confidence because I know a few great people who have gained power,fame and support from the public. They are-
    1. Sudha Murthy - A girl brought up in a middle-class family in Hubli, Karnataka. But,She has founded several orphanages, participated in rural development efforts, supported the movement to provide all Karnataka government schools with computer and library facilities, and established Murty Classical Library of India at Harvard University. Due to these kind actions Sudha Murthy became powerful and famous and is loved by all the children of India.

    2. Another prominent Indian figure who overcame poverty to significantly contribute to society is Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam. Often called the "Missile Man of India",he rose from a humble background to become a renowned aerospace scientist and later the President of India, leaving a lasting impact on the nation's scientific advancements. Known for his humble nature and dedication to the country, Kalam became a beloved public figure, widely admired for his inspirational speeches and writings.
    Look,these are the people who didn't began with money,but due to their nature and kindness towards the society and nation,ended being a famous author and philanthropist and a President of India.
    These were just two, there many others too who didn't get power and fame by money, social media influence or political position,but- kindness, and not only in India,but across the world.

  • I think that social media influence is the key. Since milenia the people that first got into power were the one that could engage more with the population or the gruop, by being vocal and saying what everybody thinks or wants. I see exactly this on Elon Musk, of course he has invested a lot if money, but I belive that the fact he now owns X and has a more public eye on him could influence a big amount of people. Because we know put him in a higher status position than us and for that we tend to belive they must be in the right

  • He could affect whoever he intends, with the amount of money and power he has. From my point of view it could be considered dangerous since so much power for just one person who can do whatever he wants with it . It does not seems like something that people should be calm about.

  • For me money is wath gives you power because if you have money it is easier to have influence on others because they see you as a successful person. I think is also related to social media because having money and being able to live all the things you have to gain followers, therefore influence in social media as well and it should be noted that in this century social media are very important for influential people

  • In my opinion, social media has changed the wolrd on that aspect. Years ago when there were no phones, political power or money could be what made you been more important, but, nowadays, the place on where you can earn more influence is on social media.
    I believe that, as everybody is on thir phones all days and lots of hours and social media is a very dangerous machine. Here you can see people talling their opinion of something and you can agree with them or no but, you need to have your own opinion before it so then you are not going to be influence by people and you are going to think what you actuly believe is beter and what is worst.

  • I think money is what gives more power because when you have money, you get fans and followers, when you have money you get popular. Actually what i had in mind was both money and political status because if a president has to chose you to serve as one of his advisors, this situation can be given as a news or information passed down to people. above all that i've said i still think money gives him power and popularity.

  • According to me , his political status and the fact that he is becoming destended in the other companies have the extreme importance and significance to how Elon Musk owns this much commed. But its a point of thinking that
    "How can someone be influenced?"
    ,first is the cash flow, but there are thousands of people who are that rich , people will only judge you on your money .
    Secondly ,according to the administration, he has achieved a social media stuff which has made him popular.
    Third , other companies will also expand his assemble by making smart move, because if maybe in the future he goes down, he still has abundance of others by that time. So what are your views?

  • I think that your political status determines how powerful you are because say your the president or prime minster of your country you are the most powerful person in that country as you make all the decisions but say you were the prime minster or president of a powerful or more influential country like the U.K or the U.S you will be one of the most powerful people in the world as the choices you make is thought to affect the world. If you have are wealthy or have a rich company does make you powerful in some ways like being in charge of the people that work for you but it doesn't make you powerful in a dictator point of view because you are not in charge of everyone else.

  • As we all know it, Elon Musk was the owner of tesla, one of the fastest cars and a spacecraft company called spaceX. He is also the owner of X, formally called tweeter, where he had an estimated amount of all his followers to be 200 million and so that was the reason why he got social media influence and it was also why he had power all over the world.
    So, I would say that it was the reason for his power, and it was how he got to a high rank.

  • We did the lesson and I think the reason why Elon Musk will help Donald Trump is because he endorsed him. I think this is a good thing because it's nice that they want to support each other.

  • In my opinion, social-media will give you the most amount of power because when you have a lot of followers, then more people will be on your side, agree with you on certain things, or stick up for you. People will believe you on things even if you're wrong, they will still believe you. Money wouldn't really help you as much. Even though you have a lot of money, you can't really take control of important things. Sure, you can buy a lot of things, but you can't really buy anything important or to have power. Political status can have a lot of power, but some things can get you fired. Some people can spread stuff about you and you can eventually get fired. It can be helpful, but the internet can be more powerful then the other two options.

    In conclusion, social-media will give you the most power then the other two options.

  • In my opinion I think social status gives a person most power. Based on the lesson lots of Elon Musk's power comes from his social status. Considering today's world lots of people will fall for whatever they see on the internet, especially someone with more than 200 million followers.

    I personally think that money can give you some power but not a lot. You can buy plenty of things with hundreds of billions of dollars but I'm not sure if it will give you that much power. But still Elon Musk did do a lottery in some swing states for a million dollars to convince people to vote for Donald Trump. After that he became the president's advisor which is something many people don't like. Many people don't like this because he doesn't have any political experience.

    Having political status does give lots of power. even though you wouldn't have lots of power as a political leader, Elon Musk was able to put so much pressure through social media on Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform political party, to where ten councillors called for him to resign from his position.

    The reasons I listed above is why I think social status gives a person the most power.

  • In my opinion something else, trust, gives you more power. Money may have gotten Elon Musk his political status, and social media influence, but look at him now, he's using it for reasons he shouldn't. Like to boost his vote for elections and stuff he has nothing to do with! For example,
    he did a live stream to his followers with the party leader. This upset European Union leaders who felt Elon Mr Musk was breaking rules by boosting one candidate unfairly. Elon Musk has faced accusations of spreading misinformation about elections on X to his 200 million followers.

    He would give away $1 million each day to a random person living in a swing state, if they signed a petition. In November last year Trump won the election and chose Mr Musk to be a presidential adviser. Money can really change a person.

    Money can really change a person. That's why I say trust gives you more power, a lot of people
    THOUGHT they knew everything Trump would do and be fine with it because of his previous presidency, but clearly not. With trust more people would listen and care about your opinions, follow you on your social media platforms, get respect from the people who have a political status other than citizens obviously, and with that you might get offered a status and with a status you'll get money.

    That is why I believe trust gives you the most power.

  • money because you can buy anything.

    1. That has no reason to be one of the most powerful people in the world.

  • The political status is what contributes to most of his power, as he already has money and influence. With him now having control over the Treasury department, meaning he has complete control over the money distribution services in America, he can do more things that cause influence than he could do before, even with him having being the owner of Twitter, a platform that has many controversies. With his over 200 million followers, he had power, and with now, his control over money, he is, no doubt, the most POWERFUL person, not because of his money, not because of his influence over others in social media, but because he now, has nearly full control over money.

  • Ans:

    I think that money is what really made him so powerful. I agree that the political status and his social influence also makes him powerful but what I really think is that without money he could not get any of these. I think this because if he never had money he would have not been able to buy twitter and get so many followers and because of this he won't get any social power to influence a large amount of people, he could become an influencer with around 2 million followers but not the amount of followers he has today because money is what really made him famous. Then we have political status and I think that if he didn't have money he couldn't have close to trump and get the status he has today. So because of these reasons I think that money is what really makes him so powerful. Many of you might not agree with me but I do respect your opinions but as of now I'll vote for money.

  • I think that there is not such thing as what makes him the most powerful but the use of the different access points he has to be so. Musk has each one of the concepts provided on the poll, and other people have some as well; for example: Mark Zuckerberg, Kanye West, including Donald Trump. These people play the game that is influencing the world we know to an extreme. But who has all of them in abundance other than Elon Musk today? It is known that Elon Musk has various huge businesses that provide him money and status. By having many businesses, having them compete against other huge companies in the same working area, and them being better than a lot, is a way that he elevates his name and creates power. An example of this is Tesla competing with all the other car companies and it being ranked the fourth most valuable car globally. In another hand, his millions of followers are a symbol of his influence, but he also has control of the influence other people have. This by being the owner of "X", a social media platform created to have opinions which lead to influence. Finally, working along side the U.S. new president will give him access to influence the politics world which goes hand by hand with peoples rights. An interesting view is Musk's public affiliation to Donald Trump during the 2025 elections and him giving a million dollars to random people who support the "MAGA". Could that be a violation of peoples right to vote frww willingly? I believe it all goes down to his ability to influece, that is his power, and how he uses these key points to keep influencing.

  • I think that both social media influence and political status can give someone power. That is because, nowadays I think there are a lot young people that are not interested in politics as much and actually try to distance themselves as far from it as possible, but if these same political groups began posting on social media platforms such instagram and YouTube, it'd lead to a substantial amount of growth in that same youth's interest for them. One great example for this, from my perspective is, the official congress (Rahul Gandhi) Instagram page. Unlike what most would expect this page is actually filled to the brim with memes on the ruling party which as of now is BJP. The reason I think this will help them in the future elections is because, now more and more young people are getting attracted towards them and actually learning more about them in a meme format, one of the main things about the page is that, it doesn't just make fun of the ruling party but also point out flaws in their own respective manifestos and speeches as well.

  • The answer to said question,i believe,has evolved drastically throughout the ages.So while any answer could technically be correct i think it is best to evaluate each according to our current standards.In doing so, i reached the conclusion that a strong social medial influence gives you the most power in comparison to other options due to the fact it could esssentially be considered a 'shortcut' to other forms of power that an individual may want to acquire.For example, a high social media status is a form of income while also putting you in a influencial position when it comes to well..anything.This is highlighted in Elon Musks case where we can clearly see the effects of the media he posts on his X account.Aditionally,as it was shown in a presentation about him along with the information we were offered,his abilty to influence even a war between countries showcases the lengths to which his power with said social media status extends to.
    Thank you for listening

  • I think it's the social media influence who give the most of power because with social media influence we can won most money whith the likes and the views of there videos or there publication. With social media influence we also can share those political ideologies to make win in elections.

  • I believe that money helps a lot in making one "powerful". In Musk's case, his money abled him to buy various popular companies, including X (or previously, Twitter). There, he has the ability to post his opinions with millions of users reading and consuming them each day. Due to X belonging to him, many people want to know what he is up to. Media and people we consider authorative figures influence our way of thinking and, therefore, our way of acting.
    This means Musk can influence people with his money and via his social media activity.
    I don't think his political stutus makes this any better or worse,it just sparks controversy, especially online which leads back to his social media influence.

    1. Elon Musk certainly gets a lot of attention on social media, what are examples of how he has influenced people and has this been a good or bad thing?

      1. During our lesson about Elon Musk, we learned about how he has made negative posts about a certain charity and a political figure in the UK which in turn lead to his followers harassing the charity workers from said charity and the political figure. This shows just how much power Musk has over his followers; Them going out of their way to harass people who are trying to do their job just because Elon Musk doens't think they're good. Based on these examples alone, I'd say that Musk's influence only brings harm to the people who don't have the same opinion as him which I wouldn't say is good at all. If anything, I think Elon Musk knows how many people listen and follow what he says, seeing as certain groups of people want to "be like him", and uses this to his advantage.
        There are probably many more examples that I can't think of at the moment, but I do know that people who have found someone they look up to or see as their role-model, go to very high extents just to appease this role-model or be like them (For Elon Musk, there are various social-media accounts who seem to be trying to do this as well.)
        Many people who side with Musk are vulnerable and therefore easier to influence which heightens the extent of the extremity of the actions his followers would go to.
        Altogether, just as any other media figure, Elon Musk has people who at least hear of/read what he is doing. More vulnerable people follow these actions more intensely and may find themselves doing things that follow his opinion, even if these actions are extreme as well which in any case, doesn't go well.

  • I believe that having alot of power, you need kind of like a combination of money, social media and poltitical position. Elon Musk does the similar thing. With his money he bought X. By owning X and being popular on social media, he can influence other peoples minds and opinions. And by doing this, he can get himself a political position. He does this step by step, first the money, then social media, and then he can get into politics. This way he also becomes more popular and more powerful.

  • Personally speaking, money is the most powerful subject in the world besides confidence. The political status and the social media influence are in most cases only exemplary effects of being rich.
    With money, you are able to advertise your opinion, can increase your political status. Parties, which share your standpoint would support you. Then, you can choose whether you want to become a member or not.
    Furthermore, there are many social media influencers, who are actually very popular since they are rich. For instance, MrBeast would not have that many followers if this channel had not access to so much money. Almost every video costed at least 400 million $. Not a single experiment would work out if nobody would earn something.

  • Personally, I belive money is the most inportant assest Elon Musk holds as without his money, his ideas would have never came to life or begun in the first place.

  • I personally believe that social media is the most important when it comes to power. In a day and age where we rely so heavily on technology to get by, social media is extremely influential. For someone like Elon Musk, with 200 million followers on a company he himself owns, it comes as no surprise that he's had the influence that he has, especially considering so many people now use social media as a news outlet. He is capable of influencing millions of people, people who listen to him, who believe the things he's saying. What he uses his platform to do and talk about has a massive impact on the world as a whole.

  • Power can come in many forms: social status, money, political position and connections to powerful people. Social Status, gives you strong influence over others that may be considered lower in the social hierarchy than you this also links to social media influence as with that you would usually have a large dedicated audience that would unconditionally listen to you as most people in social media are children. Money can allow you to buy your way through social ranks, as well as political positions therefore making you more powerful in society. For an example, Donald Trump made Elon Musk the governmental advisor, because of this (along with other certain reasons). Mr. Musk was given the position of governmental advisor making him exponentially more powerful. As another example Donald Trump has recently been put into office making one of the, if not the most powerful person in the world. Personally I believe that no single person should have this much power simply because of money / position / social standing.

  • Personally, I believe his political status and the fact that he is potentially expanding to other companies is concerning as it can imply a sense of exceeding amounts of power. Elon Musk was given his position as political advisor for Donald Trump. It is believed he may not have the experience required for this position of influential power and responsibility. In my opinion, there are two key components of power; respectability and the ability to represent influential or direct actions/ beliefs effectively whilst being heard and recognised by members of the public.
    Elon Musk can be represented as an opinionated individual, some of his ideology can be perceived as something of a discriminatory nature. This may affect his public stance in future situations.
    Elon Mush is shown as a powerful member of the public, he is the owner of many mainstream companies such as X and Tesla: these have been represented as a source of income for him. Members of the public can potentially believe this source of income can be a source of power too.

  • I believe that his social media presence and the fact that he has 200 million followers across all his online platforms is a major reason for his overbearing amount of power. I believe this because Elon Musk could simply post one word onto any one of his platforms and it would instantly gain traction, due to his large online following. His online following is almost greater than the population of the USA. This large following could lead to any of his ideas being seen by millions of people around the globe, which could influence people worldwide, strengthening the fact that his online presence is a core reason towards his power. This could later lead to his online power having devastating consequences as his posts on these platforms could lead to influencing the wrong people. The spreading of fake information could be carried out very easily with his status in the digital world, negatively affecting those that believe it.

  • Some of the ingredients you have to have to be powerful are money, companies, and a political position, and of course Elon musk has all of that. Since Elon musk has all of it he is a powerful man, the main thing that has got him to be powerful is money. Because of money he has a political position and a company. Crazy how he gets these things because of money. These ingredients have led him to be successful throughout his life. What do you think?

  • social media influence is arguably the easiest way to gain power as it allows you to manipulate an entire generation of people. this was shown when social media apps such as "tik tok" were too influential in America, as the American government tried to get it banned multiple times within American borders due to it being too powerful and manipulative over the American population to the point where the American government got scared that it would have too much influence which would remove some power from the government. this is good for Elon Musk with his 200 million followers on twitter otherwise known as X giving him a large influence over his audience in his countries and others.

  • I believe that his money is what grants him the most power. This is because, with money, he is able to buy and exploit a numerous amount of things- for example, paying people $1 million if they signed a petition that was in favour of Trump, which ended up affecting the vote in November 2024. This changed a lot, especially in America, as the president holds immense power over the country, and is able to completely reform the country. Elon Musk's power, and what he can do, comes from his money, and he uses his political position and social media influence mostly to boost that power.
    Another example is when he donated Starlink terminals to Ukraine for support in communicating. This is a show of how much money he has, having had the money to be able to get internet for an entire country. Despite having reversed his decision eventually, it shows that he has the power to influence the world, and has the money to support large countries which are losing billions themselves.

  • I changed my mind about what is the most powerful ingredient today. Recently, I held the opinion, that social media should be the most powerful as it can shift the masses in favour of one. Though this is only really true in democratically ruled countries. It becomes not useless, but less powerful in comparison to the other ingredients when it would to be used in autocratically rules countries as there are no elections there. It is often easier to find corrupt politicians or to buy your way up in an autocratically rules country than in a democratically ruled one. And because the world consists out of more autocratically rules countries than democratically ruled ones, it makes money the most powerful ingredient as it lets you buy politicians in most parts of the world. Also, social media influence isn't needed anymore as the inhabitants of those autocratically ruled countries are often cut off from the internet and/or are being oppressed, making protests unlikely.

  • The ingredients for power is money because it's like the thing that most people use to get what they want by buying it.It gives power because everyone wants money and if you have money you can give them money and they do what you want them to do.

  • I went for "Money" in the poll above, because why not, isn't money the only thing that gets us up early in the morning, makes one rush to work? I believe, money, as in the options above, gives us the most power; if you have a lot of money, you can go on any social media and create an account, and you'll get hundreds of people who are interested. And with that, you can link connections with politics; because you can help a lot of people with your money, adding on to your profile. Lastly, money gives you fame!
    But as in case of Elon Musk, I believe he is pure talent, it's his brilliant work that has brought him up here, being the world's MOST powerful person and a great inspiration. Him being so successful and rich has gained public's attention, making him influential in terms of social media. And when he used social media to intervene in politics, he boosted up his political status. Now that he has all money, social media influence, and political power, it's so easy for him to become the world's most powerful person!

    1. What are the risks of one person having too much power?

      1. When one person has too much power, it can lead to unfair decisions, lack of responsibility, and serious consequences. Our History shows that absolute power often results in goverment corruption and the people harm. One huge risk is the absence of checks, balances and of course limits. In governments and businesses, power is usually shared to prevent abuse or a incorrect use of it. But when one person controls everything, there’s no one to stop his bad decisions, leading to unfair laws or dangerous actions.

        Another danger is lack of consequences. A powerful leader can make mistakes without facing any punishment, blaming others or ignoring logical thinking and criticism. This can cause economic crises, failed policies, or harm to the people’s rights. Progress and innovation also suffer when one person dominates. If they refuse to listen to new ideas, change slows down, and better solutions are ignored.

        Personal opinions are another issue. The leader’s beliefs can affect millions, shaping policies based on their views before than what’s best for everyone. Finally, too much power creates instability. People eventually resist unfair control, leading to protests and a lot of conflicts.

  • I believe that power comes from money. Thats not a new perception and it has been like that for since humanity was taking its first steps. From the ancient times the richest person in the town/village would hold a lot of power, influence on the people and most of the times would be the ruler of it. Humans tend to show respect to people with money, get influenced by them and ultimatly becoming their ''pupets''. The same thing exist in our mdern society. Have you wondered why people value things that rich and famous people say? However he who has money doesnt always have to be ''the bad guy''. Elon Musk ,yes i agree has sayed and done many controversial things, but you cant deny the fact that he has helped our society. Without his companies we would probably not have evolved in things such as rocket landing. Take for example a company of his called The boring Company(they basicaly dig tunnels so that cars pass rom there and dont get stuc in traffic in big citys) they dug a tunnel in Los Angeles , Califoria and helped with the traffic problem. What I am trying to say is that yes money does bring power but the people that have it can sometimes use it to help our society.

  • In my opinion, I feel political status is the factor that gives you the most power. Because if you are an advisor for example, and a particularly corrupt one, then your decisions would hold more weight, and those hefty decisions would eventually creep their way into the ears and minds of senators, governors, even the president. And essentially, what this means, is that your word would be law. And if you create the laws, are the laws, or even above the law, then you have the greatest power of them all.

    1. What do you think legitimises political power?

  • Hello topical talk,

    In my opinion, The main power that gives you influence which everybody cares about and makes all of the others is Money, yes as it gives a trusted company which get you some media followers and about that political status its not a big deal, as you can build your way up by talking and interviewing some political figures one by one. Thank you!

  • In my opinion, social media gives people the most power because it allows you to influence and shape how others think. Elon Musk is a great example of this. He uses platforms like X (Twitter) to share his ideas, promote his companies, and even affect the perception of his followers. With just one tweet, he can make the value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin rise or fall also he can convence people to buy or not them. This shows how someone with a large social media following can have a huge impact on the economy.

    But the power of social media goes much far away just making money. It lets people with influence change how society thinks about important issues. Elon Musk, for example, uses his platform to talk about a lot of his bussines things like space exploration, electric cars, and renewable energy. This can push governments and companies to take action on these topics. Also, this make this goverments or companies buy his products so he become more and more rich. Social media makes it easier for someone like him to inspire others and challenge the way things are done.

    Finally, when you have a strong presence on social media, you can reach millions of people instantly. This ability to connect with such a large audience can lead to real a change in the world. People follow Elon Musk not just because he's successful, but because he is charismatic and knows how to drive and what to say to his audience.

  • Social media has become a powerful tool in the modern world, but it makes me reflect on the exploits of certain influential personalities. Elon Musk, for example, stems from a massive amount of fame and power, which is evident from the massive follower count he has on social media. His recent venture of sharing misinformation about a charity that helps refugees seems to have backfired greatly. What Musk Needs to understand is that positioning yourself as an authority figure on a topic without the correct backing can have dire consequences.
    When taking a closer look at his actions, it becomes evident that it can be incredibly harmful if social media is misused. On his part, spreading false claims can reach the masses, but no one is accountable for taking action which can seriously put several individuals in harm's way. Not only is he the owner of X, whilst also being the head of Tesla and SpaceX, but he is also the richest person on the planet, meaning a lot of his words carry severe weight. As an advisor as well, Elon is giving himself even further power to make matters worse.
    Considering he has over 200 million followers, it is easy to believe what he says. People are quick to follow and trust a person only to realize later that the truth is much different. Therefore, I think that Musk's use of social media has changed our perception of the world and how social media influence works and its misuse and the damage that follows.

  • Well for me,the most important ingredient for power is "Money".

    The more money a person has,the more is his status is in the society.

    For eg. take for instance,the Ambani wedding, it was quite the headline in India,guests were also high profiled,from global icons to politicians to entire bollywood,all danced to their tunes and getting invited became a prestige and power symbol.

    It shows jow much power money has. High profiled celebrities were serving food in the plates to guests like waiters.

    As per today's societal standards,the wealth possessed by a person is directly propotional to the power, status, recognition and respect he recieves from his family and the society.

    As in case of Elon Musk,he is a multi billionare and now the president's advisor,clearly his power is something which cant be overlooked.

    Despite having a collosal amount of wealth,his misleading statements over global issues (about which he has little to no idea) speaks volumes that money cant you judiciousness and wisdom and how valuable words truly can be. The controversies stirred by his words can't be denied.

    But having the power of money simply,brushes off all his mistakes under the carpet just like that.

  • I personally think that the thing which gives us the most powerful is money. By having money we have every leisure in life, that's exactly what happened with Elon Musk. By having so much money he bought well-known social media platform and increased his social media influence, after thousands and millions of people started following him he also got made trumps advisor giving him political power. His example greatly influenced my mind and made me believe that by having money we have the access to every position we want. In this elon musk also played smartly as just having money isn't enough he cunningly got both social media influence and political power by using money

  • For me it is the social media, because there are many people who support him for highs and losses and he can freely ask his opinions to other people which makes other people also join his X and this made him the most powerful people in the list

  • Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, but is that really the only source of his power? I don't think so. I believe that his power stems not only from his wealth but also from his social status, companies, technological advancements, etc. He might be one of if not the most influential people on Earth.

    The implications of Elon Musk's power are vast and multifaceted. He is the head of multiple companies, each pushing innovations and new advancements in their own respective sectors. His ownership of X (formerly Twitter), a major social media platform, gives him a large influence over public media. Lets not forget, the sheer economic power and market control that he possesses.

    Sadly, Elon Musk isn't the most responsible with his power. He has publicly shown support for right-wing policies and politicians (e.g. Trump), which has led to concerns that he may use his power to sway elections in his favor. In December 2022, he temporarily suspended journalists criticizing him, raising concerns about his bias, censorship, and free speech. In the same year, Elon Musk threatened to cut off Starlink services for the Ukrainian military in the ongoing war which raised concerns about Elon Musk's power over international affairs.

    In short, while Elon Musk has revolutionized multiple industries, his past actions show the risks of unchecked power, political influence, and ethical concerns. His actions affect millions making it crucial to monitor and regulate his influence responsibly.

  • According to my point of view, I think the political power plays a significant role in the success of mr.musk, the richest man in the world. It's a strong tool for creating extraordinary change in a large scale. To succeed in the business, people's support is extremely important . For their marketing and to spread the good concerns of the business, among people, reaching each and every person in that society is so tough, for this, political power is very important to spread their business ideas in a large scale of people, thus, political power plays a vital role in the marketing of the business. From this, more people in a large scale , will get satisfied with their business ideas and, they will support for their business plans, if this happen, automatically the business will rapidly develop. This is an remarkable factor in the development of elon Musk,to the richest man in the world and a person with more followers in twitter (X). At conclusion, political power includes marketing of business, creating awareness about their ideas and also a great influencer in social media...

  • I am interested to post a comment again, in this topic. As I already posted a comment in this topic, I wanna add this point. If the education and qualification is not so great and is average means, the political power can fulfill their educational and qualification, for this I was to propose an example, our country, India 's current prime minister, Narendra Modi, only has a qualification of BA, his political power had made him great in government among people. Also, unbelievingly the richest person in the world, elon Musk had only completed bachelor's degree in economics and physics from the University , Pennsylvania in the year 1997. I think his skills, knowledge and Mainly political power plays a vital role in full filling the qualification, which made him great...

    1. Do you think Elon Musk has gained political power in a fair way?

      1. According to my point of view, I support both because, Elon Musk, some what gained political power by his business skills and knowledge, which produced the great space industry, space X and tesla, and that improved the economy of the country USA. On the other side, I also feel some what, it's unfair because of the government subsidies, controversies, addiction, and criticisms...

  • For me the ingredients of power are many things like money ,political status and social media influence but still I think love is the most important ingredient of power because I’ve heard in many meeting about peace that love is the most kindest manner to achieve someone or something . By the power of love you can you can have all the power in the world . But most importantly by love we could finish our foes and enemies but by making them our friend even the rivalry between USA and Russia could end up just by making friend but still love can be used as a weapon against people and if betray someone it could hurt him so badly that he would try to take revenge . One of the most famous quotation of love is that “ where there is love ,there is life “ and it is said that nobody has ever measured that how much love can be given to each person .

  • I think that elon musk entry in politics whould be good because as I leaned it tells elon is a good man so that is why I think like this🇮🇳😀

    1. Why do you think Elon is a 'good man'?

  • In my opinion, money gives him the most power but the other factors to power also help him gain money (social status, social media influence) and another reason for his power is he is the world's richest man and his networth is over 400 billion dollars. And for a person to be worth so much is just bonkers to me!

    An important factor to his wealth is his ownership of many known popular and amazing companies like spacex, tesla 90% if the boring company and on top of all of that bitcoin and neurolink.
    Elon Musk also owns twitter which he can use to ask people if they want more of a certain product or not, this will enable him to make a good investment in a stock there for making him even richer.

  • I believe money is one of the main roots to power because if you have a lot of money you will know important people who could give you a political position. In addition, if you have a lot of money you can post more interesting pictures on social media which means you will have more followers and earn more and more money. As well as the money if you have more subscribers you will have more people to influence and have behind you. In contrast, I also believe who you know is important to get power because people will be more interested in you and more keen to hear your take and opinion on important matters. Although power should be only about how kind you are to other people. Unfortunately, that is not the reality. Power is formed by many aspects not just these things.

    1. Do you think it's fair that money can secure power? What are the risks in allowing rich people to have so much power?

  • Musk’s power comes from his leadership in technology, space exploration, social media, and clean energy. As the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, he has transformed industries, making electric vehicles mainstream and lowering the cost of space travel. His massive wealth and large social media following allow him to influence public opinion and financial markets.

    Examples of his positive influence include SpaceX, which has advanced human space exploration, and Tesla, which promotes clean energy and reduces carbon emissions. These contributions are helping shape a more sustainable future.

    However, his power can be controversial. After buying X (formerly Twitter), his sudden policy changes and influence over online speech have raised concerns. His tweets often cause unpredictable fluctuations in stock prices and cryptocurrencies, affecting small investors.

    While Musk’s power can create progress, it also brings risks when not used carefully. Whether it’s mostly good or dangerous depends on how he balances innovation and responsibility.

  • In my opinion, Elon's political status gives him the most power in the United States and globally around the world. He has multiple companies, such as X (twitter), and SpaceX which are making global changes throughout our society and our world as a majority. Since he has a large following on these platforms that he has, he is the center for any news or information that can be spread out to people around the world and especially in the United States. Because of this large following that he has with more than 200 million followers on X, he has all power and liability to spread out news that can either be positive or negative throughout the media. Also since he is Trump's advisor that shines a spotlight on him and his actions making him nonetheless more powerful than he was before the election. So overall, I believe that his overall power will and does come from his influence within media and by Trump choosing him to be one of his advisors throughout his four-year residence in the White House.

  • I voted for social media influence. It is true that Elon Musk has a huge social media presence with his more than a million followers and he can influence many people through his videos.Elon Musk also owns X (twitter) and he can do what he likes because he is the big boss.
    Many people might argue that because his net worth is $400 billion dollars that he has the most respect.
    Just because he is rich it doesn't mean that he can do and get whatever he wants, people can say no to what he wants to buy. Also, people might just think of him as a greedy and selfish man for not giving any money to the world and they might not respect him because he doesn't respect them.
    Being the advisor to Donald Trump might make people stand up and listen, but Elon Musk has aspagers syndrome and he can't really communicate with the other members of the white house; this will result in arguments between Mr Musk and the other politicians.
    In all the examples we have had about the way Elon Musk interferes in other peoples business, he has used his social media presence to get many people on his side and start acting against others. He has the most power in very smart way; he has lots of people on his side and they all do hateful things to the people he is against. He has all the power to in a way control the people and for them to do his dirty work and no one can say he is doing something wrong because he isn't doing the mean work.
    We should watch him more carefully on social media.

  • In my opinion Elon Musk's large amount of money gives him the most power, as he has already bought a social media platform with money and he could buy a political position with his money .With all this money and power I am unsure if he would make the right decisions, he can even make decision with America which might be affecting us.
























































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    1. What makes you unsure about Musk being able to make the right decisions because of his money and power?

  • In my opinion, I think that money is the most important because you can buy nearly anything with it and you can also bribe people into doing bad and illegal things like stealing, killing and blackmailing.

  • I think that social media and wealth give the most power because if you have lots of money and you are very popular on social media, that would make you exteremely influencial, as your followers would listen and probably agree with you, and that would effect your power. Elon Musk has both of those things so I think that is the main reason of his power. I also think that political position is important [Elon Musk is in that state of power as well] but in my opinion, social media influence and wealth give you the most power.

  • I think that social media influence gives you the most power because if you are popular on the internet you can change many opinion.He has over 20 million followers on X so he can use that to influence many people. So I think that social media give you the most power.

  • I think Mr.musk ingredients to power is Donald Trump . He uses his power for himself so he can try to rule the world. This could affect the world because of his behaviour to Donald Trump . He also has power from money and influence. He also has more than 200 million followers on space x so he has power over people who follow him.

    1. Can you explain a bit more about how you say his behaviour towards Trump could affect the world?

  • Really I could not decide between them, the fourth of them are really important nowadays. This show us how he is one of the most powerful people of our planet. Today one of the most important things you will need to have is people´s support. Now people can move the world, if you have simmillar ideas and make people happy will be really beneficial for you. Being a such important person in social media also help you to promote your ideas and also to change people mind. You can post whatever you like and make shure everyone will see it. As he have also different industries it makes him very powerful because he can promote them and also collect a lot of money. He has also a powerful social possition as he has a good relationship with the president which make him a really important person. Morover, he has a lot of money and as everyone now nowadays money can change people and everything he wish

  • The main ingredient of power is the knowledge , intelligence and skills, because of knowledge intelligence and skills he has,earn money and became one of the richest man, Because he has lot of knowledge and intelligence and skills, he has invented lot of fabulous things such as a electric car . Every one things that main ingredient of power is the money but because he has knowledge and intelligence and skill ,he has created/invented lot of thing and sold that things and become rich . When he was about 13 year old he has invented the game by using coding skills . Hence the main ingredient of the power is the knowledge , intelligence and skills.,

  • I believe the main reason of power is money, my reasoning for this statement is how being able to lobby and purchase things such as advertisement and product placement allows you to influence people and the choices they make. Money is also a key driver for popularity as he can change the world and invent new technology which brings in the attention of governments further leading to increased power, an example of this is Elon Musk's close relation to Donald Trump and Elon's invitation to Donald's inauguration. This boosts Elon Musk's status of power.

  • In my Opinion, the thing that give you the most power depends on how you use it. Money, political status and social-media influence are all important, but they work best when combined.I also think the number of people knowing your name plays a huge role.

    For example, Elon Musk has billion of dollars, owns multipl companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and has over 200 million followers on X. His influence on social media give him access to powerful people.

    As someone from Germany, I see how political status plays a big role. Ourleaders don’t have the same personal wealth as Musk, Still, many politicians use social media too gain support and follower.

    In the end I think socialmedia influenc might be the most powerful tool today. It spreads information fast, controls public opinion, and can even influence politics and business. Someone with a massive following can reach million instantly, which is why even world leaders and billionaires focus so much on their online presence in the last years

    what do you guys think?.

  • I think there are three main ways of getting power, the first one is to have a large amount of money, because if you are very rich you could buy important companies and have lots of terrains along the world both things are very important because if you have the control of important internet companies you could have the acess to lots of information of many people and in an oder way having information means having power. The second way of having power is to be a person dedicated to the social media because you would gain popularity and lots of fans wich some most of them in order to be as popular as you will follow your thoughts and would act as you order. Finally the third way of gaining power is to have a good net of contacts, having good contacts will facilitate you many things and some people could be scare of you due to they would know the people you know and what they can do.
    As a conclusion I would like to said that power must be devided in many people becausemany power make people corrupt and became bad persons

  • I would say that the most important cornerstone to power is intelligence. Understanding how to rise to power and being smart enough to do it is an extremely underrated ability that a lot of people forget about. People usually think of money as what Elon used to make himself in the position he is, however they forget that to make that amount of money, you need to be very smart. I am interested to know what other students think as there might be other important reasons for power.

  • In my opinion it's a combination of all factors that give the most power but if I had to settle on only one factor I would say it's money because with money one has many opportunities open. You can build yourself a social-media presence and so have influence over social media platforms that nowadays is very important to reach the younger audience. Then with this network built you can go into politics. In USA for example, it's important that you have a certain net worth to get into politics and be successful. In Germany on the other hand it's helpful to have social-media influence to reach many people and spread your ideas and convince people of voting you. With all three of the factors given -Money, social-media influence and political status- (like in the case of Mr. Musk with his high net worth, his social media platform X and now also his political status working with Donald Trump) one can become very successful and powerful.

    1. Do you think money should grant political influence, or are qualities like leadership and expertise more important? Why?

  • I absolutely agree with the answer of the quiz, political statuses play a really important role in Elon Musk's power and his influence is global. In my opinion, he could change the world and how factories work. He could work for a better world and that would be amazing. He has the intelligence to do it.

  • Literacy is definitely something not everyone is best at, because alot of countries have such low literacy rates it might as well be critical. That being said, famous influencers nowadays is what we believe on especially on countries that have low literacy rates. Influencers for example like Elon he definitely is very commonly known amongst people, we all know him because he is the richest man on earth currently. Elon could use the power of his big follower count to fool people or even countries that have low literacy rates. Which concludes that Elons influence is definitely his biggest power and he is able to give immense impact to the world. Missinformation given by Elon would be fatal, because of how easily we believe on people with a lot of followers.

  • In my opinion, money is the biggest factor stated here for power because with money you can bribe people or even buy people off (basically the same thing). By doing this you don't have to "form connections" or have a high political status as you can just buy your way there since **almost** everyone has a price. Yes, there are people who won't be bought off but because Elon Musk has so much money that it won't even matter that a few people are against the idea. This whole theory is also proved since other countries have corrupt governments , like Mexico , where some parts of the government are payed off by illegal organizations so that they can continue working.

  • Money's power stems from its ability to act as a resource that can be exchanged for viturelly anything else, providing leverage across various aspects of life, including polictcal influence, social staus, and access to information and recources. While other forms of of power, such as politcal or social media influence, can be significant, Money's ability to indirectly or directly purchase or amplify those forms of power positions aas it is the most versitile and broadly influencial resource.

  • According to me all the factors play a crucial role in giving immense power to musk. But after a deliberation on this topic in classroom activities, I think that money and influence were the points that directly makes musk powerful and influential.
    1- Money-it provides him with lot of fame, power and influence not only in his country but also worldwide. Although when he was young and not rich, a very few people knew him but after his success and becoming rich everyone knows him.this states that money gives you fame.but how did he earn money ? Through his multinational companies, and I think that they are the indirect way for his money and power.

    2-social media-it has made him very influential which gives him power and fame.with around 200 million followers his decision and pov spreads like wildfire. Everyone has an eye on his decision which makes his posts very important. When he posted a negative comment on refugees charities many of his followers criticized the charitable funds.But in this materialistic world where everybody runs after money it is not important to have money to become influential. I think that people follow one's pov or thoughts when they connect to them not because they are powerful and wealthy. If your posts are connecting and correct it will get popular. And one more point social media can also bring money and power through monetization.

    Political power also gives influence but only in his country .

    But at last power depends on how he uses it. Wise use can make him more powerful whereas acts which are not good may play a negative role.

  • I picked choice D (something else) the main reason I chose this is because I don't believe it's only one of the answer choices, I actually believe it's all 3 of them above and here is why, for starters all of the answer choices consist with the same idea, power all of those combined could automatically make you a very powerful person especially with the right influence and reputation I believe that the many ways to gain power is follow the same 3 simple routine which is mostly how Mr. Musk has gained most of his power and influence. Elon Musk has gained many attributes from money, political status, and social media influence embarking on his character and how he becomes a major topic in place of power, all of these elements is key to Mr. Musk's authority and how he can be respected as a person in society this overall can add up to how he can affect many people in his community and what mindsets he can change with his sense of his wavering power with the way he influences his community.

    Once again in my opinion this is the many reasons why all of those attributes add to his character and how it shapes his authority and power over things. With his power he has achieved many milestones that some cannot achieve from those 3 main routines to contribute to what power Mr. Musk may hold. This overall much influence can also influence people in specific way whether positive or negative especially with that much upholding.

    In conclusion there isn't just one main factor but actually multiple with his 3 elements that build up his status and character online and in real life.

  • We all know for a fact that Elon Musk is one of the richest and powerful men on the planet today- who has influenced many people through social media. However, personally, there are many factors of his success within his career and one being his great political status. Many people know Elon Musk and his connections with certain high rank people are very strong such as Donald Trump. These connections and high status allow Elon Musk to have more freedom that most people and is hence considered superior over many working class people.

    We must think, is this really fair? Undeniably his success wasn’t just given to him but required a lot of determination and commitment yet, does this really justify the unfairness and inequality between not only him, but political leaders over average citizens.

    Keeping his career in mind, Elon Musk holds great power and with this power he could do a lot. Personally, I believe he could be doing a lot more with this money, perhaps trying to solve or better poverty and even funding much more charitable needs such as healthcare and education for those less fortunate and privileged. Hopefully, with his time left he chooses the right decisions and makes a change for the better. We mustn’t neglect how powerful he is and turn a blind eye underestimating how he can help through his platforms and connections with high ranked individuals. Owning companies like SpaceX and Tesla have definitely helped him in becoming influential and we must learn from this.

  • In my perspective, one the most impactful ingredient that brings him more money and power is the social media he owns. If you notice, most times when people have a lot of followers, it is more easy to influence your followers with your own opinion and believes. For example, Elon Musk owns X ( formally known as twitter) and in the classroom lesson, I learnt that once Mr. Musk raises a topic on something, his over 200 million followers supports him and sometimes put pressure on people that do not or people that he is against which to me may come of as cyber bullying, cyber bullying has a negative impact on social media. I also learnt that before tweeter was owned by Elon Musk, people weren't able to make nasty post about people other people because they will immediately take down the post but now people have change. Since twitter now X was taken over by Mr. Musk, the rate of cyber bullying has increased because Elon musk didn't apply the same policy like before. Many people may not be happy about this but can't stop it because of the fear of being attacked.
    I know that Mr. Musk is the richest man on Earth and has all the ingredients for power but that doesn't mean he should use it for the wrong reasons. Elon's power isn't totally bad because he has used his power to make life easier for people. An example of this is the Star link. It is very useful in my country. I will implore him to use his social media power to help people more than bullying people.

  • Hello everybody,
    Out of all the options I believe that political status will bring you the most power out of money or social media influence.
    I don't believe that social media influence will bring the most power as even though it will expose you to a larger audience like Mr Musk did with his 200 million X (Twitter) followers it will not give you much power to do anything. I believe this because yes social media might make you wealthy or well known but it is all done online where you cannot gain power. However even though I don't think it can gain him power I believe it helped him to have a bigger influence on society.
    Next, I don't believe that money will the most power to Mr Musk because you can be wealthy but it is not a symbol to anything. Being wealthy just means that you have worked hard and found a technique which works for you. However, this does not mean that people will give you power as you need to build trust and connections to formulate power and wealth does not do this.
    Lastly, I do believe that political status will bring most power to Elon Musk because with political status you have built trust and connections with other powerful people which will boost your profile. We saw Mr Musk did this when he became one of Mr Trump closest advisors. This means that now he has the power to affect decisions which not only affect his fan base but a entire countries if he gives Trump advice. It will also give you power from the legal system as you will be able able to build trust with government officials and therefore build your power.

  • Social media is one of the most powerful tools in the modern world. It has the ability to shape opinions, influence millions, and even drive major social and political movements. Unlike traditional sources of power like money or political status, social media influence is accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

    Take Elon Musk as an example, his massive following of X (formerly Twitter) gives him direct access to millions of people worldwide. With a single post, he can shift stock markets, promote ideas, or even influence public debates. This level of reach shows how social media has changed the way power works.

    Social media influence isn't just for celebrities. Activists, educators, and everyday individuals can use these platforms to spread awareness and spark change. Movements and climate activism have gained global attention through social media, proving its impact beyond entertainment.

    However, with great power comes responsibility. Misinformation, online manipulation, and digital echo chambers can distort reality and mislead people. That's why critical thinking and ethical use of social media is essential.

    In today's world, influence isn't about wealth or political status, it's about who can engage, inform, and inspire the minds of people. Social media gives the power to the many, not just a few.

  • In my opinion political status gives the most power, the power of political status can be immense. it allows people to shape a policy and make a selection that influence entire communities, countries and even the world at large. political statuses are frequently built over time, as that person gains the support of influential people and groups and are able to get leverage that support them too eventually win elections and enact for change. Additionally, political status can also be inherited, those who have been born into families with political influence often find it easier to rise to positions of political statuses in short amount of times. In conclusion political status is a powerful tool to achieve even though some people can have that power handed to them.

  • I feel like money is the most important thing to have if you want power. Take Donald Trump as an example, he has lived a priveleged, money filled life and despite being a horrible person, he's still the president. Aswell as this, you can literally buy positions to get higher up.

    1. It's fine for you to have a negative opinion of someone, proactive_physics. But your arguments would be strengthened if you can explain why?