Posted on 12/21/2013 2:29:10 PM PST by nickcarraway
rofl
Well said, and as a billionaire he has the funds to do it without subsidies.
I have (had) been an Elon fan for many years. I still am, in some sense. He knows how to use the system to get things done. That said, I am having all sorts of second thoughts on these methods...
Many years ago I built and installed a U-turn blinker in my car and hooked it to a toggle switch connected to my left turn signal. About 2 years after I sold the car some guy about 20 miles from me patented the idea and tried to get congress to mandate U-turn blinkers on all new cars.
Another example of a person trying to enrich himself through government mandates. Thankfully this one didn’t go anywhere.
His first business success was PayPal, which caters to anybody.
That is not consistent with the article’s contention Musk just does business for the rich.
Only faux conservatives resent business success.
Bwahahahahah!
What the hell is a creative problem solver? It sounds so sleazy, slick and tacky.
“What you fail to understand is he uses government to subsidize the downside/risk of his businesses while his high end clients and he get the upside.”
Almost all highly successful businessmen have played the government to further their ends. Why should he put himself at a competitive disadvantage? He is taking advantage of things as they are.
The things that Musk is selling are things that might greatly benefit society. I personally care most about SpaceX, but his solar and electric car ventures have merit as well. He is
“I could care a less who he caters to. Don’t demand money from me to do it through government extortion.”
Has he demanded money from you? The government “extorts” money regardless, do you think it’s better spent investing in new ideas or paying welfare?
“If he’s such a brilliant businessman he shouldn’t need government to make his business model work.”
I don’t think he “needs” it, I think he’s smart enough to take it - just like virtually all of his contemporaries.
In fact, I’d appreciate it if you’d point out the conservative stalwarts doing similar things and not taking government money...
It is true that he has signed on to The Giving Pledge, meaning he will give most of his wealth away before he dies.
Soooo, he could die a pauper but that isn’t good enough
for some people???
They would rather he didn’t create business, pay
employees and create livelyhood???
They just want to spend his money, cause it’s
not right, him having so much and all...
Here we have Obama’s Income Inequality writ large,
after all it’s all the rage.
I fail to see the difference between him and a dairy farmer. I buy a Tesla it’s subsidized, gallon of milk, same thing. Space x. How dare he take money out of the mouths of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics and the other entrenched interests.
I could not care less what he does with his money. He is asking for our money from the government and special favoritism from governments. That is wrong IMO.
But you must admit Musk is a Baraqqi partisan.
Crony capitalism at its finest.
And he employs that noxious twit Mark Kelly.
“However, his products serve only the wealthy and elite. “
So? So do yacht builders. This is nothing but liberal propaganda against wealth. Liberals desire wealth but the are jealous children when they don’t have it.
So it’s the everybody does it and the ends justify the means defense.
And that’s at the root of why the country is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
Nearly everyone is gaming the government system for what they can get and are considered fools if they don’t.
The politically connected get to use government to pick the winners and losers in industry.
I choose not to play and will be the fool for it I guess.
The corporatist path is the entry into fascism. But who cares, right?
If the yacht builders got government guaranteed loans - Tesla to the tune half a billion dollars - and subsidies taken from the taxpayers to lower the cost of their products you’d have a point.
Otherwise you don’t.
There isn’t a difference other than Tesla and the like are carving out new subsidies.
Both are wrong.
Stupid comment by you. The point that they receive government money nothing to do with who they serve. They shouldn’t get government money in the first place. No one should.
bump
I don’t care if they make upscale products, I do care that they are in a perverse relationship with government
More power to him for creating PayPal. He earned it.
Getting government backed loans - half a billion dollars - to start Tesla is a whole different issue. The taxpayer gets to eat it if he fails and he gets the reward if it succeeds. That is flat out wrong. He should gamble with his and his investor’s funds, not taxpayers.
Corportism isn’t good period. The merging of business and government. You have those who are politically connected who are favored by government by both law and taxpayer monies and those who are not that have to compete with them and generally can’t. We all lose over the long run.
” I do care that they are in a perverse relationship with government”
Exactly. Who they serve is no one’s business. The fact they are taking MY tax money is.
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