Posted on 12/08/2021 4:06:37 PM PST by nickcarraway
Musk's finally ready to admit that government subsidies distort markets and that government actors are terrible at capital allocation.
"Say tomorrow, you get a phone call from Joe Biden," asked Wall Street Journal tech columnist Joanna Stern to Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a Monday night forum. "And he asks: What are your needs from this [$2 trillion spending] bill? How do you answer him?"
"We don't think about it at all, really," Musk said, channeling Don Draper to the tune of the audience's uneasy laughter. "It might be better if the bill doesn't pass," Musk added. "The federal budget deficit is insane…something's gotta give, you can't just spend $3 trillion more than you own every year and don't expect something bad to happen."
"With this bill, there is a lot of support for E.V.s [electric vehicles]…and it helps Tesla," Stern told Musk. So if the bill shouldn't pass, Stern asked, "what do you think the role of government should be?"
"I think the role of the government should be that of a referee, but not a player on the field," replied Musk. "Government should try to get out of the way and not impede progress." He continued:
The rules and regulations keep increasing every year. Rules and regulations are immortal, they don't die. Occasionally you see some law with a sunset provision, but really, otherwise, the vast majority of rules and regulations live forever….Eventually it just takes longer and longer and it's harder to do things. There's not really an effective garbage collection system for removing rules and regulations. And so gradually this hardens the arteries of civilization, where you're able to do less and less over time. So I think government should be trying really hard to get rid of rules and regulations that perhaps had merit at some time but don't have merit currently."
"Honestly, I would just can this whole bill. Don't pass it," Musk said forcefully.
The Build Back Better bill, which legislators in Congress are hoping to cram through this month or next, would include $12,500 tax credits for U.S.-made electric vehicles made in unionized factories, up from the $7,500 currently offered. Critics note that Musk has no reason to support the E.V. provision because Tesla factories are not unionized. But there are other good reasons for him to oppose these provisions: E.V. adoption and the creation of charging stations are plugging along just fine as is, no (market-distorting, union-favoring) government intervention needed—a point specifically made by Musk, who noted that the federal government does not pay for gas stations and does not need to build E.V. charging stations. "I'm literally saying get rid of all subsidies," clarified Musk. (It's worth noting that the charging station subsidies were included in the infrastructure bill passed last month, so the details of the two eye poppingly pricey bills are getting somewhat conflated.)
It's nice to hear Musk denouncing government intervention, but he has unquestionably benefited handsomely from government subsidies in the past, so this looks a bit like he's pulling the ladder up behind him to stymie encroaching competitors.
Musk is "the model businessman in the age of Obama," wrote The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney several years ago. "His businesses thrive on mandates, regulations, and subsidies. Tesla received a federal loan guarantee to make its plug-in cars, which are also subsidized through tax credits for buyers. SolarCity's suppliers are subsidized solar panel makers, and its customers get tax credits for getting the panels installed. SpaceX is largely a government contractor."
"Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support," according to a 2015 Los Angeles Times' investigation. "Musk and his companies' investors enjoy most of the financial upside of the government support, while taxpayers shoulder the cost." And, more recently, both SpaceX and Amazon's Project Kuiper have publicly jousted, siccing the Federal Communications Commission on the other, all while suckling at the government teat to get millions in subsidies for satellite internet projects.
Still, Musk's own suspect motivations for ending these subsidies don't make the substance of his comments less true. When taken with his other government-skeptical statements—"it does not make sense to take the job of capital allocation away from people with a demonstrated great skill in capital allocation and give it to an entity that has demonstrated very poor skill in capital allocation"—it seems like Musk may have unseated free speech–loving warlock Jack Dorsey as America's richest, staunchest government skeptic.
After all, "the government is simply the biggest corporation, with a monopoly on violence and where you have no recourse," said Musk, when asked if billionaires like him should have their wealth seized via taxation and redistributed by the federal government. Where's the lie?
Tesla may thrive on mandates, regulations, and subsidies, but I can’t help but wonder if it would be a better business without them. A business built to compete in the marketplace, not to survive on training wheels.
Musk got mugged. Now he’s a conservative.
Yep.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1468684576407101440
There is a lot of accounting trickery in this bill that isn’t being disclosed to the public
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1468685044239814666
Nothing is more permanent than a “temporary” government program
He certainly has used the vast powers of the state in China, to help build and develop his products. Via Chinese control and support. As per the sop for US companies, they usually bash America, but leave China alone. Musk Kowtow’s with the best of them in regards to China.
Read ...Lift Offf....about SpaceX and Musk...he only had 200 Million at the time...if you work for him its 24-7
“if you work for him its 24-7”
My wife worked as the Controller for a driven entrepreneur for almost 10 years. Our children were in HS when she took the job. Three previous Controllers quit. The man was very demanding. Timelines were insane.
But, he was very generous with her pay and benefits. All her vacations were paid for 100% including first-class flights and 5-star hotels every year. She didn’t quit that job. She watched the business grow and enjoyed working there until he sold it and retired to Hawaii.
He seems to be awakening but he still makes my skin crawl.
I wonder how much indirect Chinese government subsidies flow into the LA Times and our press, and US tax subsidies too?
Going forward, Tesla’s regulatory credits sales may reach as much as $2.2 billion in fiscal 2021 at a compounded growth rate of 40%, and as much as $3.1 billion in fiscal 2022 based on the same CAGR. Tesla’s sales of carbon credits will be a massive $4 billion by the end of fiscal 2023 if the compounded annual growth rate maintains at 40%.
Per stock dividend screener
By subsidizing union companies the government is undermining competition, effectively punishing workers who choose not to have a pro-communist union parasitizing their paycheck to fund Democrats.
Anyone here thinking he’s a quick learner a la Trump?
The citizen has no recourse against the government, yet the government has no remorse over its mistreatment of the citizen.
I miss Ronald Reagan!
“Government Is ‘the Biggest Corporation, With a Monopoly on Violence, Where You Have No Recourse’ “
The federal government cannot win without the assent and cooperation of the states. Quite simply, the federal fascist bureaucrat weenies don’t have the manpower to extinguish 500 brush fires in 25 states.
Agreed.
We've been talking about secession as a possibility to separate ourselves from the government corruption from Washington D.C.
DENOUNCING OUR TIES TO THE VATICAN AND BRITISH CORPORATIONS AND CORRECTING OUR POLITICAL STATUS BACK TO A SOVEREIGN CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC SIMILAR TO HOW OROVILLE IN CALIFORNIA HAS IS A MORE COMPLETE WAY OF CORRECTING WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING.
One of the sinister things about federal subsidies is that the subsidizing of your competition puts enormous pressure on you- even if you are against subsidies - to accept subsidies too, in order to play on a level field.
Reminds me of gang initiation rights I mentioned on another thread. Evil people are not content to just be evil, they are driven to pull others into their power by pressuring them to commit one perverse crime to get accepted. Then they use your sin to control you and coerce you into doing more, and more. You get the privilege of being in the club, before you realize you also cannot simply leave it.
As far as the headline quote, hes not wrong at all.
But no one talks about how GM and Ford are entrenched in China, and have long done so long before Tesla. Biden lavishes praise on GM for falsely being "a leader in EV's in America", when the majority of their cars come from China, Mexico, Canada and other countries. Teslas sold here, are built in the USA unlike Ford and GM. People need to wake up to the lies from Biden and others. Government is the problem, not the solution.
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.