That wholly depends on your definition of the term 'earned'. If you compare it to the way most people look at it - earning money through hard work against an ho

That wholly depends on your definition of the term 'earned'. If you compare it to the way most people look at it - earning money through hard work against an hourly rate - it does not make any sense at all. If you define it in terms of gains - monetary or otherwise - created through the actions of a person things look different and there are many people who would have 'earned' this amount and more. In practice hardly anyone who 'earns' so much actually is awarded the amount they 'earn' but Musk took a gamble which would normally have paid off like many be-suited-and-tied types (and quite a few be-shirted-and-hoodied in more recent years) have taken such gambles before him have done. As to why Musk is singled out here where others like Gates, Bezos and Zuckerberg were left alone does raise a number of questions related to the impartiality of the legal system.