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?
China has benefited greatly from Tesla products developed in China. NIO, xpeng, and every other alternative vehicle has leap frogged because of Tesla China.
Every once in a while, Elon Musk says something that is not total hogwash...
When will God take this meddlesome priest off our hands?
A BIG part of Elon’s initial investment came from the Obama solar panel give away.
Elon saw that money and how easy it was to ferry it. Obama gave Elon our money and he, just like Solyndra, ran away with it.
Although musk now produced solar panels, he reinvested it in other projects. I’m not mad, i just want everyone to know that musk was a key participant in the solar panel development giveaway that no one had to report where and what they spent.
Others bought islands and mansions and cars and stuff. Elon took the dollar panel money and used it instead to develop batteries for evs.
Which, btw, is nothing but taking 18650 lithium ion batteries and stacking them in a box.
You post true “NUTBALL” stuff.
Clear your mind: https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/01/fact-check-act-of-1871-did-not-establish-the-united-states-as-a-corporation.html
Elon Musk: The Government Is Not A Corporation.
ConservativeMind’s Fact Check says so.
Tesla started building cars when there was no subsidy, GM lobbied for the subsidy, and Tesla stopped getting it two years ago.
It’s well worth watching the whole interview, you won’t regret it!!
I’ve read the cacophony of poop you are describing.
It’s senseless babble without reason or proof.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Watch the whole interview, you won’t regret it!
https://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/the-act-of-1871-the-2-constitutions-corporate-america/276232
https://www.nationallibertyalliance.org/two-us-constitutions
Or even a third?!
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/christopher-caldwell-americas-two-constitutions-competing-visions-of-a-more-perfect-union
Or never mind and take comfort that you ARE your social security number, that your birth certificate is proof you’re alive and that government benefits are more reliable than natural rights.
The last two are talking about wholly different things. One is talking about judicial judgments and approaches in the past 150, with no British or Papal issues. The other is simply talking to how judges have changed law since the 1960s.
When you read the Constitution and you see the court outcomes, we are not living in the world the Constitution created, but it sure isn't run by the Catholic church or the British “Empire.”
Get real.
Anyway, it’s getting late.
Just promise me that you’ll keep watching?
Will do.
Get a good night’s sleep!
Well, yeah, but not all 18650’s are created equal. And the “boxes” are significantly engineered too, to reduce fires in accidents, etc.
Related article:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/050715/economics-tesla-batteries.asp
At least Musk used the money constructively.
Well, he’s STILL a bond villain.
Companies ‘made’ by regulation can die by regulation... that’s a big drawback for people like Musk.
MOST persons do NOT know what WORK really is.
TESLA is NOT union.
ALL the loans Musk got were paid back EARLY-—and with all interest due.
Watch the video in post 29.
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