I think we’re supposed to be more ticked off that some guy who made a pile of money, than at the fact the taxpayers merely got what was contracted? No wonder this article is from Slate, it’s pure socialist envy politics at work. You might want to rethink what you said about this being a rip-off of the taxpayers.
Unbelieveable how many Freepers do not seem to get what happened here. This is crony capitalism at its worst. Elon donates heavy to Democrats, gets huge low interest loan from taxpayers. Elon makes $1.5B, taxpayers get squat. Basically a wealth transfer from US treasury to an individual. Entrepreneurs are the people who run google and apple, who create products without government loans subsidized by the rest of us. If Tesla was such a fantastic idea, it should easily have found backing from all those VC firms in nearby silicon valley. But Tesla realized it was far better off getting a subsidized loan from US treasury.
So what did taxpayers get for the risk? A few green jobs and a few overpriced cars driven by wealthy liberals. At least with GM bailout we saved billions in unemployment comp and associated costs. Tesla was just a wealth transfer from US taxpayer (who took risk) to Elon.