Elon Musk is a devout Baraqqi.
But I agree with a number of your points in the post.
The reality is that Tesla makes their profit selling phony “electric car credits” to auto makers that don’t have an electric model themselves. This is required by California law.
Okay, without having the access to internal financial documents of the company let’s assume the profitability of the entire company right now relies on the tax credits. I personally disagree but let’s move ahead. I paid full sticker and sales tax for my model S and ordered every option. That’s $120k +. If it were $150k I would still buy it. Do you have any idea how many collector cars are registered in the US? Over 20 million! Why does that matter? Each one of those cars is owned by someone and the amount of buyers for cool cars even at $150k would blow you away. Of course the car has to blow you away too. The Tesla S does, that is well established. But what happens when this same technology is available for the masses at $30k? This dog hunts!
Think about it this way. Do you say the same thing about your phone? It was likely made in China and I could easily say, “Yeah, (insert your phone brand) makes money, but it is only because they are exploiting low wage workers.” You take advantage of anything available to succeed, if the government is offering financial assistance you use it while you are building the brand, infrastructure, and everything else a new company needs! Whose fault is it that the other companies need the credits and Tesla has an overage? In over 90 years no other company has ever been able to successfully start a new car company. The winner is always the end user, everyone should be cheering no matter what happens later.
Did you watch any videos yet? Type TED Elon Musk on YouTube and watch that one first. Now try to imagine a current automotive CEO laying his or her fortune on the line to make our world a better place. He isn’t doing it for the money!