Posted on 06/14/2018 7:39:25 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Here’s how the meeting went...
Rahm’s Transportation Czar: “Will this project need concrete?”
Musk Agent: “Yes. Lots of cement and concrete.”
Rahm’s Czar: “Approved. Since I’m the local shop President, I’ll be your Concrete Workers Union contact.”
So you are for tax breaks for folks who can afford 100K cars but not for the rest of us?
...
Not at all, which negates the rest of your screed.
I didn't think you were, but your post to me earlier put that out there like it was not important. It is.
I have been inside the old freight tunnels, just after the flood and before they sealed them off.
A friend was in charge of the repairs of one of the buildings, gave a guided tour.
I didn’t think you were, but your post to me earlier put that out there like it was not important. It is.
...
The blame should go to the government. Was Tesla supposed to turn them down while their competitors didn’t?
Some blame should go to the govt, particularly when the govt is trying to pick winners and losers in what is supposed to be a market economy.
As I said, I don’t blame anyone for trying to make a buck according to the rules in use at the time. Even Trump will tell you that. My point was that if you look at Musks’ business, unlike the Apple example, it almost exclusively relies on govt subsidies or contracts, making him no better that the “military-industrial complex” so berated here. Why is Musk held up so much? Because he’s a good ‘salesman’, he has a good pitch, and he looks good in front of an audience. But I have yet to see the better ‘value’ of his products over competitors.
You obviously didn’t read what I said.
Most of my post was referring to SpaceX and your reference to them getting govt. subsidies.
And I ask you what subsidies for SpaceX you were referring to? You didn’t answer that.
I pretty much gave you TESLA. except to compare them with every other automaker, as far as govt. subsidies go.
Or many other industries as well. If you were a farmer would you refuse to grow corn for ethanol when it pays twice as much as any other crop you could grow in your area? Or just go broke.
If you were a doctor would you refuse to take Medicaid patients because they are a govt. subsidy?
All Musk did was see an opportunity and meet it. If he hadn’t started TESLA, would the subsidies have gone away?
No. People who wanted an electric car would have bought one from another maker.
Really? AFAIK, Zip2 didn't have any government contracts. Neither did Paypal or Tesla. Spacex now dominates commercial launches. The contract to supply cargo to the ISS did save the company, but they are also saving the taxpayers money. Other than that, they had to sue the government to get military contracts (to break the single supplier contract with ULA), which is also saving the taxpayers money.
From 2014:
Shortly before a private spaceflight company’s test rocket exploded over southern Texas last weekend, state lawmakers announced millions in subsidies to get the company to continue launching rockets in the Lone Star State.
From the same article:
McDaniel and Dreyer were two of six in-house and external lobbyists employed by SpaceX in 2012 and 2013. The company paid between $200,000 and $445,000 for their services, according to the Texas Ethics Commission.
SpaceX’s long running government relations efforts in Austin secured them more than just financial incentives....
In addition to the $13 million SpaceX will get from the spaceport trust fund, it will not have to pay Cameron County taxes for 10 years, saving the company an estimated $2 million.
Musk was buddies with Zero and he is a big time Dem donor.
There are lots of online sources (I wont do all the homework for you), you just have to get past the fluff to see where his business comes from, and where he acquired his capital.
Musk is smart, he works the system, he is making a lot of money, but if you took away all the TAX dollar sources he has availed himself of, which he got by govt favoritism in contracting, he wouldn't have anything. Unlike the Henry Fords, the Steve Jobs, etc, who built industries from the ground up.
Sooooo.... you ARE saying that Musk is so stupid that he doesn’t realize they’ll need to know of obstacles?
Not in the least.
But, I’m intensely interested in how they plan to deal with them. In Seattle, the brand new monster machine all but died from hitting an eight-inch test well (steel pipe).
A massive project to open cut and extract.
IIRC the tunnel people are the same that drilled the test well?
With solid rock, pressure can be applied to the rock face.
Random boulders that ‘bounce’ off the cutter face???
I wish Musk well, and perhaps, he might dig up Al Capone’s vault?
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