Posted on 08/10/2018 6:59:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Crony capitalism – the close alliance of big business with government – leads not to free enterprise, but to its opposite, in which government, not the market, chooses winners and losers, through subsidies and other forms of largesse.
Adam Smith, the great philosopher of capitalism, understood that businessmen want to maximize profits, and how it is done is of secondary interest. Indeed, he once said that when two businessmen get together, the subject of discussion is how to keep the third out of the market. Adam Smith and more recent philosophers of the free market such as Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman believed deeply in capitalism. Many businessmen, sadly, do not.
Consider the example of Elon Musk, the billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who may be a modern poster-boy for this phenomenon. His ambition is unbounded. As Norm Singleton of Dr. Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty wrote in The American Conservative, Musk has an agenda to do everything from "sending Men to the moon and Mars, to creating a 700-miles-per-hour tunnel transportation system, to turbo-charging human brains by implanting computers."
The problem is that he relies on the levers of government to fund his ideas.
In the view of Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, Musk is "perhaps the most prominent case of cronyism in modern times," especially due to his use of "friendships in government, as well as some high-priced lobbyists, to keep the spigot of government money going his way."
As is often the case with "private-public" partnerships, his ideas often do not come to fruition despite his receipt of all this government money.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
How much are we subsidizing Musk? Maybe that money could go to the Space Force to defray costs as Libs are complaining about the cost of a new branch of the Military.
Aside from the crony capitalism, which a lot of companies are guilty of, without fossil fuel usage being curtailed(by force - via global warming scam), the electric car industry would never have been started, and it certainly won’t survive.
Crony Capitalism is bad.
Crony Socialism is worse.
Obammunism was the worst of all. All the worst of Crony Capitalism combined with all the worst of socialism
musk sounds like a nine year old boy with all of his “visionary” ideas....sort of cute, for a child.
90% of FedGov activity these days seems to consist of being a strong-arm service for one rentseeking constituency or another.
Elon Musk treats SEC investigations of his highly manipulated Tesla public company the way the Deep State views Republican congressional hearings. Musk views the SEC with contempt and amusement.
The article is deceptive about SpaceX. NASA has always purchased from other companies. The Saturn V was built by private companies. Even today the Atlas V and Delta IV are purchased from United Launch Alliance, a joint company of Lockheed and Boeing. SpaceX can sell a launch to NASA for much cheaper than NASA can build otherwise.
Now Tesla, yes that is a scam. But SpaceX is just like any other launch company. They have to compete on price, and they are the lowest.
Consider the example of Elon Musk, the billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who may be a modern poster-boy for this phenomenon. His ambition is unbounded. As Norm Singleton of Dr. Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty wrote in The American Conservative, Musk has an agenda to do everything from “sending Men to the moon and Mars, to creating a 700-miles-per-hour tunnel transportation system, to turbo-charging human brains by implanting computers.”
...
SpaceX, which employs a lot of US veterans, has greatly lowered launch costs for the government and for business. They are planning to lower the costs a lot more.
Musk sounds like a nine year old boy with all of his “visionary” ideas....sort of cute, for a child.
...
There’s few people who have created more American jobs in the past 15 years.
The problem is that he relies on the levers of government to fund his ideas.
...
In the early years, Musk pretty much entirely funded Tesla and SpaceX. He’s still the largest stockholder of both.
Been with us since the 1791 Whiskey Tax (repealed in 1802)
and not many companies shed 9% of their workforce last month like tesla did
and not many companies shed 9% of their workforce last month like tesla did
...
Which is only a fraction of the people that Tesla added since the start of the year.
Tesla = Tucker
I do not know much about the intricacies of SpaceX, but I do know that Tesla electric cars do not make economic or environmental sense for a multitude of reasons at this time.
Consider this... a high capacity Tesla battery weighs approximately 1200 pounds which is the primary reason why the typical Tesla outweighs the typical SUV or even pickup truck. While there have been advances in internal combustion engine technology over the years, the primary means car manufacturers have used to increase fuel efficiency has still been to decrease weight. This is because it takes a certain amount of energy to push a 5000 pound vehicle around town regardless of whether it is a Ford F150 or a Tesla Model S.
There are inefficiencies in internal combustion engines. But the inefficiency of generating electric power (mostly with coal and natural gas in this country) transmitting it through the power grid and then charging and discharging huge batteries is most likely less efficient. This is especially true if one considers that Tesla batteries are made up of thousands of basically non-recyclable Li-ion cells. So it gets back to how much energy it takes to push around that huge battery during its ten year life span and how much it costs to recharge it, and how much it costs to replace it.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that based on 15mpg it takes 6667 gallons of gas to drive a big pickup truck 100,000 miles. At $3 a gallon that comes to $20,000. But even without figuring in the cost of recharging a new Tesla high capacity battery, the replacement cost is likely to be higher than $20,000. A few years ago there was a small uproar when it was disclosed that Tesla was charging $40,000 to replace the 53kWh battery in their “Roadsters”.
So how much will they be charging to replace the current batch of 100kWh batteries ten years from now? This is assuming Tesla will even be around ten years from now, which is probably an iffy proposition. The 100kWh contain 8256 18650 Li-ion cells. Tesla claims it current cost for just the cells is “under $190” per kWh which works out to $19,000 for a 100kWh battery or 19000/8256 = $2.36 per cell. There has been all sorts of speculation that the price of Li-ion cells might be cheaper in the future. But the price of 18650 Li-ion cells has decreased very little in the past ten years and the technology hasn’t changed basically at all. With Tesla’s expenses and overhead the real cost of a replacement 100kWh battery is likely to be $40,000 ten years from now. So just this cost is twice what the gasoline would cost you driving a Ford F-150 or larger pickup.
https://electrek.co/2017/01/24/tesla-teardown-100-kwh-battery-pack/
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