Totally agree. But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does.
“...But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does.”
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No dislike for THIS Musk initiative. The reason being “...no government funds...”, IMHO.
“But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does. “
Well I don’t know what he’s said or done previously other than Tesla, (probably hates Trump) but launching your car into space using the biggest rocket ever and having the boosters land....
...well that’s reminiscent of old time American titans.
What’s not to like?
Do you read / know much, think critically?
RE: “But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does”
Here’s some 5 Billion shrinking working class dollars of reality for you:
“In a particularly glorious, damning bit of investigative reporting, the Los Angeles Times recently determined that Musk’s empire had been built on almost $5 billion in government subsidies. This includes:
$750 million from New York State to build a solar panel factor in Buffalo.
A 10 year property tax exemption from New York worth an estimated $260 million.
$500 million in direct solar power grants from the Treasury Department.
$1.3 billion in incentives from Nevada to build a battery factory near Reno.
$517 million in California’s emissions tax credits from competing automakers (so that kind of makes Musk an environmentalist bookie, of sorts).
Whenever it’s reported that General Electric pays no taxes, we grumble at the thought. But Musk doesn’t do just that, he takes taxes. The taxpayer’s “investment” in his financial empire has certainly been a boon to Musk’s Tesla, which has seen its stock price soar over the years:
Right now, Musk is asking for yet more taxpayer money, this time to fund his pet project SpaceX, which he hopes will take him to Mars. The organization recently asked the U.S. Senate’s Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness for an (ahem) “public-private partnership” to advance missions outside of Earth’s orbit.
Of the hearing, Wired Magazine wrote, “the future of space will continue in that good ol’ fashioned American spirit of free markets with a heaping side of government help.”
Like a reverse Robin Hood, Musk isn’t robbing from the rich and giving to the poor: He’s robbing from the working class and keeping it for himself. As the Wall Street Journal astutely wrote last year, “Tesla looks more like a classic of the reverse income redistribution of green crony capitalism, in which the middle-class taxpayers subsidize billionaires who make products to satisfy the anti-fossil-fuel indulgences of the upper classes.”
But now that Musk has risen to the top, he has started to condemn government subsidies. This is symptomatic of Silicon Valley’s schizophrenic Ayn Randian attitude that the believe they created the world through their genius alone, and not without loads of government support. (News flash, Bay Area liberals: Silicon Valley was created by the DOD.)
On this contradiction, columnist Jim Motavalli said, “Elon is now looking at it from the point of view of a winner, and he doesn’t want to see other people win because they get government money. I do think there is a tendency of people, once they have succeeded, to want to pull the ladder up after them.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/elon-musk-wants-to-end-government-subsidies/article/2009014
That is because when he first got into the rocket business several years ago, he trashed NASA and mocked their inability to do anything.
1. NASA’s problems have been largely political/managerial, not technical.
2. Musk touted his Falcon rocket as a cutting edge design, new way of rocketry. The basics of his rocket were developed by NASA 50 years ago. He developed some neat innovations, but his disrespect for the accomplishments of NASA in the basics of his rocket design is insulting.
3. Musk has proposed some stuff that captures the imagination of people and politicians.... and is technically ludicrous. His idea of a high speed “Tube Train” that operates in a partial vacuum is ridiculous. That one died a pretty quick death after some engineers apparently told him how expensive it would be to build a sealed rail tube from Los Angeles to San Fransisco and how expensive it would be to pull a vacuum on it. We won’t even get into the details of someone moving at 400 MPH in a train then encountering a hill or curve.
He is a salesman. And his biggest successes have been getting hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal Government for his “private, commercial” projects.
You are on to something ref Musk
I’ve always been leery of Musk, however— when it comes to space & rockets & Mars—he’s committed, and’s he’s producing.(and’s he’s truly brilliant at it specifically)
Re-usable 1st stages?— We are living in the future! That is a revolutionary development in rocketry.
I don’t like cronyism, but I’m not going to be a purist on it. And SpaceX is the least of the Usual Suspects.
And with Tesla and Solar City..... compared to Solyndra, what can I say? Musk is no angel, but I’d be willing to bet, he’s wasted LESS government largess, compared to all the other Crony’s. It’s not an excuse, just sayin’.
Anyway... Good comments by all.