America didn’t give Elon Musk a trillion dollars. He earned every penny

When SpaceX went public on June 12 and Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire on paper, the predictable reactions arrived almost immediately. Some viewed the milestone as a symbol of everything wrong with modern capitalism. Others celebrated it as the ultimate entrepreneurial success story.

Both sides are missing the bigger picture.

The most important aspect of Elon Musk becoming the first trillionaire is not the size of his fortune. It is the fact that his journey could only...