Jun 23, 2026
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has had enough of anti-wealthy business-owner bashing, and he’s taking his case to social media.
“What about all the entrepreneurs that risked everything and failed?” Cuban stated in a June 20 X post. “Or the ones that are grinding it out, trying to build a business? You know, the ones that create more than 60 pct of the new jobs in this country. The more successful they are, the more you hate them? . . . You don’t care if they go broke?”
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Cuban was responding to critiques from politicians and social media mavens over the recent Elon Musk/SpaceX ‘trillionaire versus the economically downtrodden’ debate. After Musk became the world’s first trillionaire in June 2026, politicians argued that the issue wasn’t just wealth but power.
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“Our democracy cannot survive when one man, who contributed $290 million to get Trump elected, becomes $700 billion richer since Trump’s election,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (D) said.
Sanders was hardly alone.
“Elon Musk just became the world’s first trillionaire,” noted Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D). “The typical American household would have to work more than 11 MILLION years to make Elon Musk’s level of wealth. We need a wealth tax.”
Noting that 10% of people in the U.S. are entrepreneurs, Cuban said there are plenty of discussions to be had about income inequality and helping people who are struggling economically, but blaming business owners for the issue is over the top.
“I’ve talked about a lot of them in my timeline,” he said in his X post. “But in reality, saying ‘Eat the rich’ will end up helping no one except maybe politicians trying to raise money. And probably hurt those in need, as more money is spent playing politics than helping.”
More so, ideology is “not a strategy,” Cuban continued. “Nor is it a plan that has lasting impact on people who need help. I’m not a believer in trickle down. It’s a joke. I am a believer in trickle up.”
Business experts say Cuban has a point. . . To a point
Cuban argues that entrepreneurs create most new jobs and are often unfairly demonized in debates about wealth inequality, but economic specialists say his larger message is skewed.
“They’re two different things here,” Nic Puckrin, a Dubai-based entrepreneur and founder of Coin Bureau, told Moneywise. “He’s right that entrepreneurs create a large proportion of new jobs — as many as nine out of ten when it comes to small businesses in the US.”
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Yet Puckrin disagrees with Cuban’s accusation that demonization, in the sense of “entrepreneurship is bad,” is the right message. “I don’t think anyone really wants to crush small businesses that are trying to build something from the ground up,” Puckrin noted. “I think it’s more about taxing the billionaires or the very rich individuals, who happen to be entrepreneurs.”
Other business owners say entrepreneurs get a bad rap, and actually build businesses to give people a leg up, economically.
“In my experience, Mark Cuban is basically right about entrepreneurs and job creation,” Lisa Lane, founder of household cleaning products company Rinseroo and a Shark Tank winner who met Cuban on the iconic show, told Moneywise. “Most founders I know, including myself, didn’t start a business thinking about building wealth. They started because they saw a problem and wanted to fix it.”
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Business owners can do better on wages
In his X post, Cuban noted that he’s sensitive to criticism that businesses don’t pay solid wages, especially for those workers just starting out.
“We do all we can (to) get appreciable assets and higher wages into the hands of people who have to live paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “I’ve said before I think raising the federal minimum wage to $20 is smart. When I heard people who worked for a company I invested in (but didn’t run) needed government assistance, I made sure they all got raises. It was embarrassing to me that we didn’t pay enough.”
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There’s also a good case to be made that there’s room for both “trickle up” ideas and entrepreneurship to coexist.
“Paying fair wages and giving more people access to ownership can actually strengthen companies in the long run,” Lane stated. “The key to smaller businesses like mine is making sure policies support companies as they grow, not just once they are already large and established.”
Lane also believes that having to pick between taxing the wealthy and supporting entrepreneurs isn’t helpful. “The real goal is to build a system that rewards risk-taking while still making sure success benefits a wider group of people,” she said. “Things like easier access to capital and policies that help small businesses scale matter a lot.”
Other entrepreneurs agree, noting that “trickle-up” labor pay policies align with how smart business owners think. “These ideas are more compatible than the debate suggests,” Jonathan Katz, founder and CEO at Boston-based Blendi, a rechargeable cordless blender products company, told Moneywise. “I want my employees to earn well — happy, fairly-compensated people build better products.”
The tension only appears when policy treats wealth creation as a zero-sum game. In Katz’s view, it isn’t. “Higher wages and broader asset ownership can absolutely coexist with a thriving founder ecosystem if policies are designed thoughtfully,” he added.
The political realm needs to step up and support their communities
In his social media post, Cuban took politicians to task over harsh words towards entrepreneurs in the Elon Musk/SpaceX trillionaire dustup earlier this month.
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“I’m not saying there aren’t greedy, blood-sucking business people that will do anything for a dollar,” Cuban said. “But they are a small minority. Most entrepreneurs realize they are blessed. They want to find ways to help. They think they can use the same skills that built their business to help people. And they can.”
Cuban added that entrepreneurs can help close the wealth gap by hiring more and giving more raises, yet the burden on business owners should be shared.
“I’ve sat with Democrats and Republicans, incumbents and candidates, and asked them why they aren’t meeting with businesses that make and sell the products that have become unaffordable, and asking them what can be done to reduce prices,” Cuban said. “Why (the politicians) aren’t you meeting with them and asking them to change? Offering to support those that do raise wages, lower prices, improve benefits. Politicians just won’t do it. They prefer the donations.”
Cuban also noted that he participated in Shark Tank, which launched on ABC in 2009, for 15 years, purely to show people they can start small, grow their businesses, and help not only themselves but their employees and their communities as well.
“That’s exactly what has happened,” he said. “Demonizing those that have success is counterproductive to every benefit you want to bring to people.”
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A former Wall Street bond trader, Brian O'Connell is the author of two best-selling books: “The 401k Millionaire” and “CNBC’s Creating Wealth.” His work is featured on national finance and business platforms like TheStreet.com, CBS News, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.
