Posted on 12/14/2022 4:16:01 PM PST by yelostar
With all the fanboy Musk-As-Savior tributes on FR, maybe it's an appropriate time to look at his family and business history.
Elon Reeve Musk is the son of Maye Musk and Errol Musk.
from Wikipedia:
The (Musk) family traces its origins to England where the surname was adopted by Elon's paternal ancestors in the 16th century. The family was part of the small number of British immigrants to South Africa in the early-to-mid twentieth century; Elon's paternal great-grandmother was descended from Dutch Free Burghers, while his maternal great-grandparent originated from Switzerland.
The surname Reeve traces back in the peerage to at least the 16th century.
from Wikipedia:
Errol Musk (born 1946) is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer who was once a co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika.
In 1969, he became a 50% owner of an emerald mine on Lake Tanganyika, that he bought for £40,000, funded by selling an airplane for £80,000. In a 2018 interview with Business Insider, Musk boasted that as a result of the emerald mine "we had so much money we couldn't even close our safe."
from Wikipedia:
Maye Haldeman was born on April 19, 1948 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, a twin and one of five children. Her family moved to Pretoria, South Africa, in 1950. Her parents, Winnifred Josephine "Wyn" (Fletcher) and Dr. Joshua Norman Haldeman, a chiropractor and amateur archaeologist, were adventurous and flew the family around the world in a prop plane in 1952. For over ten years, the family spent time roaming the Kalahari desert in search of its fabled Lost City of the Kalahari. Their parents gave slide shows and talks about their journeys.
Flying around the world and spending ten years roaming the desert is something only the exceedingly wealthy can do.
Elon is said to have initially "made" his money in Silicon Valley/tech (selling PayPal). There's a strong probability that any real seed money cane from his mega-rich family. His family wealth and connections appear to have landed him in the right place.
SpaceX/Starlink; Tesla; SolarCity; Neuralink - all endeavors made possible by huge amounts of taxpayer funds.
from Wikipedia:
SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Though the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA Administrator (and former SpaceX consultant) Mike Griffin later that year. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement. In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft.
Much has already been said about Tesla's subsidies, which they have paid back, but not much about their advantage, as a completely EV company, in using and making huge profits from - regulatory credits. More government largesse.
SolarCity was acquired by Tesla.
from Wikipedia:
SolarCity Corporation was a publicly traded company headquartered in Fremont, California that sold and installed solar energy generation systems as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company was founded on July 4, 2006, by Peter and Lyndon Rive, the cousins of SpaceX and Tesla, Inc. CEO Elon Musk, and nephews of model Maye Musk. Tesla acquired SolarCity in 2016, at a cost of approximately $2.6 billion and reorganized its solar business into Tesla Energy.
That's some family business! Surely Elon's cousins appreciated their cool $2.6 billion windfall. (wink wink) It needn't be re-stated that the solar industry's lifeline has always been government funding and subsidies.
The "Lawsuits and investigations" section of SolarCity's Wikipedia page substantially outlines the dubious business practices that have caused investigations and fines, before and after the 2016 Tesla acquisition.
Neuralink's ties to DARPA.
How DARPA drives Brain Machine Interface Research
excerpt:
Nobody has funded the BCI research and development with as much sustained energy as DARPA. Almost every advance or major technology in the field can be traced back to DARPA funding to the researchers. Neuralink's 'sewing machine' surgical robot can be traced to the 5-year $70M SUBNETs program
excerpt:
DARPA is funding development of high resolution brain interfaces. At the same time there are two companies who have breakthrough technology for higher resolution brain interfaces. The two companies are Elon Musk’s Neuralink and Mary Lou Jepsen’s Openwater red light scanner. The Neuralink and Openwater systems will be described after the DARPA project and its goals.
So then we can assume that Musk is "the wealthiest person in the world" because his family is mega-rich, and he "made" his money largely with the help of the American taxpayer via government funding.
It's the U.S. government that helped put the $44 billion in Musk's pocket so that he could purchase Twitter. He's not exactly a "build it from the ground up" kind of guy. He's more of a "$ they put me in the right place to ride this wave $" kind of guy.
John DiLeo's column today in the Illinois Review is titled:
Reflections on Elon Musk and the Twitter Files: Heroes Come From the Most Unexpected of Places
and contains the following passage:
Elon Musk has risked it all, from his financial position to his very life, to shine the light of truth on these crimes. He’s not a conservative; he’s certainly not a platform Republican, but he believes in truth and free speech, and he opposes censorship… and his actions certainly show a devotion to the American ideal that few people in his exalted position have displayed in generations.
Risked it all? Elon Musk was mega-rich when he was in diapers!
Speaking of that...
Show us on the doll where Musk touched you.
I am sure anything the left can use will be a banner headline.
Where’s the expose on that Robinette guy?
There is no shortage of wealthy heirs who either squander the money on play so that it is used up in two generations, or quietly work to increase wealth and control (Rockefellers?) or some combination of both. Musk operates in plain view, and has the right enemies. I don’t begrudge him his using money for useful projects or high stakes blue sky gambles (Boring Company). The government subsidy use on on those who make the subsidies available, as long as no fraud or disingenuosness (Fiskar?) is involved.
You discount that he is doing anything helpful, and you disdain people calling out the truth Elon is providing.
You are a strange one.
Bkmk
So which alphabet do you work for.... obv’s not the media part because you actually grock grammar. FBI? Shit, those dudes crap on their own shoes. CIA?
Well, apparently he is the new bad orange man
yelostar
Since Mar 6, 2021
Well, apparently he is the new bad orange man.
He is from Africa. So, maybe new bad black man?
You truly suck
Honestly
That was perfect
Lol
Yeah, I noticed that too. Elon was fine with this person till just very recently. His research goes back years but just now saying something, interesting.
It felt appropriate.
Musk understood and has used influencers, bots, trolls for a long time.
Twitter is an extension of this.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/113919665/a-case-of-love-and-hate-for-teslas-musketeers
Note the date of this article.
Welcome to free republic dot on the commies.
Elon is interesting. Not gonna lie.
I do like his space stuff.
Was surprised and pleased with his Twitter take over.
I hope he does good and I like the sunlight he is showing. Assange passed on files sent to him.
Elon just bought it.
It is a crime scene.
Twitter has been used/created by ptb,
for at least for how long?
Nobody gave a shit about Obama’s past, and they let him be pResident.
You do realize Wikipedia is a biased source, don’t you?
Doesn’t anybody like the Baby Elon Montage?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.