Posted on 03/30/2014 7:07:43 PM PDT by ckilmer
Tesla received handouts from “stimulus”
I see Sir Richard’s greedy little prints here
Private competition without government favoritism would be good
My crony capitalist is better than your crony capitalist.
Sounds hippy-ish to say, but yeah, I agree with him, here.
I think the Boeing contracts have been fat and the traditional launch companies are de-facto extensions of Uncle Sugar.
I don’t approve of the crazy subsidies to Tesla and I don’t believe in the long-term viability of those batteries but what he’s doing here I think is fantastic, and I wish him 100% success.
He’s our only prayer for staying well ahead of China.
“Can Elon Musk suck more taxpayer money from the till? Yes he can!”
Tesla received handouts from “stimulus”
............
The loan that he took out actually originated from a Bush administration program. Musk paid the loan back with interest several years ago.
Government has no business giving loans
Musk’s Teslas will be the future, so I commend him for beginning the project....solar powered with vastly improved batteries (lithium iirc)
That’s years away. I hope his space launch contracts provide him with sufficient capital
Musk is South African but came to the US because he saw entrepreneurs succeed here when he was a kid. He invented and sold PayPal to finance Tesla and SpaceX. I wish him well ...he could be the next Ford or Getty, Gates, or Jobs.
We need to end all the subsidies and stuff
Roll that around a bit.
Jim Gass says competition doesn’t work.
And people here call Musk the socialist?
agree.
Musk’s electric cars combined with natural gas powered trucks and buses combined with rising oil/gas production constitute a strategic plan—on par with Reagan’s deal with the Saudis in the early 80’s to raise oil production so as to kill the price of oil and kill Russian export revenue—so the soviet empire would become insolvent.
For more on that read:
The Roots of Russia’s Revanchism — Energy
By William Tucker – 3.21.14
http://spectator.org/articles/58462/roots-russia%E2%80%99s-revanchism-%E2%80%94-energy
I don’t understand the hatred for Elon Musk. I wish I was 1/10 as accomplished as he is.
yeah, I know.
Electric vehicles will never be more than a fringe technology until we find a replacement for batteries.
“Can Elon Musk suck more taxpayer money from the till? Yes he can!”
............
true but he promises to suck much less than lockheed martin and the other space delivery contractors. plus they are getting their space engines from Russia. Whereas Musk’s space engine is home grown.
I have no sympathy or praise for any parasite.
If musk wanted praise, he’d better start risking his own darn money instead of using my darn taxes.
Do that, and he might be less hated.
Capitalists risk their own money or have investors pony up the risk.
This guy has the risk shoved onto us instead via using taxpayer money.
So brave when no self risk is involved and one can walk away clean from a failure.
I see Sir Richard’s greedy little prints here
............
Branson doesn’t own any part of spaceX as far as I know. He has his own space business. Its a different set up. Branson has developed a space plane that will drop from a large jet and propel into low suborbital flight. Its designed to give people the chance to go into space for 100,000. That’s down from 20 million. but still expensive.
for those with a historical eye low orbital space flight now is at about the place where the yellowstone park was in 1895. A playground for the super rich of new york and san francisco. It could only be accessed by train and horseback.
In 1906, I believe or there abouts—the first paved road was put into yellowstone so that the (upper) middle class could access the park. and the super rich wandered off to other places.
Electric vehicles will never be more than a fringe technology until we find a replacement for batteries.
...............
disagree. musk’s batteries go 250 miles. the issue is the cost. musk is now working on building a multibillion dollar battery plant to drive the cost of his electric battery down. So that the price of his cars will fall from 70k to roughly 35k. Musk expects his electric production to move from 22k in 2013 to 500k in 2020. The test will come about 2016-7 when his new battery factory opens. We’ll see.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.