Posted on 12/01/2018 8:23:44 AM PST by Kaslin
Much like the late, great physicist Stephen Hawking, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become a fascinating cultural figure – a super-genius scientist whose observations and ideas are interesting and may be politically influential. Musk is probably right about Artificial Intelligence – specifically, the risks it poses to humankind and the importance of preparing ourselves to eventually compete with computers – and political leaders should pay attention. But Musk is wrong to be part of a new crony capitalist coalition lobbying for expanded tax perks for electronic vehicles (EVs). Republican leaders in Congress should ignore Musk on this issue when voting next week on tax extender legislation.
Ironically, EV tax credits are the antithesis of competition – a solution that Musk is embracing on the AI front. To prepare to combat the threats of AI, Musk started a neuroscience company that will find a way, through technology that works with our brains, to make humans competitive with computers. The goal, as Musk recently told Axios on HBO, is: “To achieve a sort of democratization of intelligence, such that it is not monopolistically held in a purely digital form by governments and large corporations.”
Underneath the nerdy language, this sounds great to me – Musk’s company is fighting for intelligence for the people. His brain tech will provide a way for us to hold our own in a fair intelligence battle against the “bigs” – big government and big business (including big social media).
I also like the way Musk sees a problem and takes it upon himself to solve it. To him, it is very clear that AI is a threat to humankind; he worries about a future where humans are pushed into the corners of our world by the superior intelligence of machines. It’s a scary picture, but here’s the important part: Musk won’t accept its inevitability. Like the hero in a science fiction movie, he is ardently on the side of the people, describing himself as “pro-humanity.” He wants our side to be in a fair fight, and to win.
Why not fight for the same thing – fair competition – when it comes to cars?
Musk actually did say, last year, that Tesla does not need the $7,500-per-vehicle tax credit – a gift from taxpayers to the wealthy people who buy EVs (78 percent of the credits are claimed by people who make more than $100,000 a year). He told his shareholders that Tesla’s “competitive advantage improves as the incentives go away.”
It is disappointing to see profitable Tesla join its less-successful EV competitors in an effort to broaden the EV tax credit, which blatantly interferes with competition and the free market by picking winners and losers at considerable taxpayer expense. The EV coalition that Tesla recently joined is calling for uncapping the credit (currently capped at 200,000 vehicles per manufacturer). According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the existing credit alone is expected to cost $7.5 billion through 2022.
The world is still learning who Elon Musk is, and how he might influence our future. I suspect Musk is also learning – about who he wants to be in the political realm. My hope is that he stays true to his instincts on the side of competition and private-sector solutions to the world’s problems. His contributions could be a free marketeer’s dream-come-true. But in the mean time, Republicans in Congress should treat Tesla’s EV tax credit position as simply self-serving and say “no” to an expansion of this gift to elites. Musk has many of the characteristics and ideas of a great capitalist, but on this issue, right now, he’s just a crony.
The Volt is a hybrid. It’s battery range is 53 miles. The Tesla S has a range of 249-315. In Orange County CA Teslas are becoming as common as Mercedes.
If you’re a smart capitalist you wind up being a crony. Free money and opportunities, that’s the stuff profit is made of.
It would be good, I think, to bear in mind that the word “capitalism” is a pejorative coined by the forces of evil to slander what von Hayek called “the extended order of human cooperation.” That is, how people act when they are free to choose.
Crony capitalism is a distortion of the extended order.
Where would Musk be without Govco bucks?
He’s playing by the rules our elected representatives have set down, like most of America. Blame Congress.
More power to a brilliant entrepreneur
“Musk actually did say, last year, that Tesla does not need the $7,500-per-vehicle tax credit”
Yes, he said that as the subsidies were being cut back and with shareholders worried as the subsidies are about to end completely soon. Once you’ve sold a prescribed number of units, the subsidies end and you are supposed to make it on your own.
Musk says a lot things. Sometimes they are even true. He is a misused genius and innovator. He needs to be locked in a library/lab and kept away from assignments that require talking in public.
And when I lived in the San Diego area I couldn’t make the drive to Las Vegas without being stranded in the middle of the desert. It’s a very expensive toy for rich people that is being tax subsidized. I’m sure those people in Orange County have gas powered vehicles as well and the vast majority don’t rely only on a Tesla.
There’s Supercharger stations located in Baker, Barstow and Yermo for the SoCal to Vegas drivers.
I know a couple of people whose Teslas are their daily drivers. They have owned them since 2013-2014.
I don’t know how Teslas are “expensive toys for rich people” any more than all the Lexus, Mercedes, Maseratis, Jaguars, Porsches, and BMWs that people buy out here. Those gas burners are not only expensive cars to buy, they are expensive cars to maintain. The Teslas seem to be cheap to maintain by comparison.
As smart and “visionary” he may be, he is a crony-capitalist, not a free enterprise capitalist. Minus state and federal subsidies for his over priced cars, his car business would have folded before now. Minus rhe billions in debt the state of Nevada saddled its taspayers with, his battery business in Nevada would not have happened. That only leaves the question of how much his government subsidized lines of business are subsidizing his other ventures, like SpaceX.
None of the others are subsidized by tax breaks and while there are stations in those places, you can’t just recharge the way you can fill up a gas tank in a few minutes. I have no problem if someone wants to spend money on a luxury car. I do have a problem if the government is subsidizing the company and the purchases with tax breaks.
LOL! He’s not social enough to be a crony. There are plenty of other CEOs who do fit that profile, though.
He and his colleagues are doing the design work that foreigners won’t do. ...or can’t do. We’re keeping him for now, entertainment and all. ;-)
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