63 points

Democrats: Let’s give this man billions in subsidies.

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43 points

Are you saying there is a law that explicitly states to give Elon Musk billions on subsidies or are you just giving a bad faith argument for the effort of Western government trying to cut dependence from petrostates?

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16 points
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They have specifically given at least one of his companies a lot in subsidies. SpaceX lives off the government teet.

Edit: People in this thread don’t seem to realize that specifically over paying for something is itself a subsidy. SpaceX has been overcharging for DoD contracts, missing deadlines, and running cost overages for years now. They’ve also been given contracts where other competitors weren’t even considered.

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27 points

SpaceX got key govt contracts early on and is the most cost competitive launcher. The comercial space program paid off tremendously for the US.

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0 points

Can you state how “Democrats” specifically did this?

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8 points

So if you go to the supermarket and buy a carton of milk, you’re subsidizing the supermarket?

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16 points

Subsidies for EVs are one thing, government contracts to deliver satellites and astronauts to space is another (essentially government just using and paying for the service)

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-2 points

Why does this bot have 45 upvotes?

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3 points

Because it’s actually 46 bots.

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4 points
Deleted by creator
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2 points

My gosh, imagine the mental gymnastics one has to go through to hold these two beliefs at the same time:

  • Electric cars are the future
  • The government shouldn’t be forcing electric cars on people

Anyone who can believe these two things at once is either insane, stupid, or just more complex than a looney tunes character.

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2 points

Does “government should internalize costs” count as forcing electric cars on people?

I’m not sure they are the future, maybe trains are better? It’s not my place to say, I just don’t think they should get to pollute for free.

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8 points

Someone who holds both beliefs at once presumably expects a future where people buy electric cars because they prefer (and can afford) electric cars. Could you elaborate on why that is an absurd thing to believe or why I’m off the mark here?

I’m not saying I agree with the above notion; personally, I’d prefer a future with fewer cars in general per capita, though I have no idea how likely either future is.

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3 points

I’d say you’re right, not sure what that guy is talking about.

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-50 points

SpaceX/Starlink is worth much more than Tesla.

Elon is a dipshit but he’s not dumb.

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33 points

This is just straight up not true. SpaceX is worth 210b and Tesla is at 712b. It’s not even close. I think you really need to ask yourself why you’re willing to either lie or be so easily manipulated into believing a lie and then circulating it just to try and make Musk look better to Internet strangers. 2 seconds of searching to find out that this is not true but you didn’t even think about it. Why is that?

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4 points
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I think you really need to ask yourself why you’re willing to either lie or be so easily manipulated

Totally unnecessary. You’re comparing a publicly traded company running on memes and a strange cult of personality to private valuation.

Now that China and other domestic competitors have ramped up EV production Tesla’s dominance of the niche is going to fall, especially considering the flop that was the Cybertruck and the brand damage Elon has committed.

We are already seeing protectionist measures being enacted for the EV sector.

In short, SpaceX and Starlink have a market to dominate (whether we want it to or not, it seems) while Tesla, a grossly overvalued company, is only going to see more competition and deepened irrelevancy.

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5 points

The ROI on electric vehicles dwarfs the SpaceX program. Whether Tesla flounders or not, the car market is more profitable (and therefore more valuable) both by the marginal return on units and the industry market cap.

Starlink might keep an edge over Chinese and Indian programs (doubtful, since India can send a probe to Mars for $75M). But the global satellite market was $4.23B last year. The global car market was $578B.

Orders of magnitude different.

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8 points

This is a fairly infamous troll account. Everything they post is demonstrably untrue and commonly inflammatory.

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3 points

It caught a live one

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34 points
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He might not be dumb but he’s not smart.

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8 points

He’s dumb. He just has a lot of money.

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2 points

He appears dumb to me too, but to others he is a genius. I’m content with just calling him what he is… a narcissist.

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14 points

If you own two businesses and are putting one of them in jeopardy for no good reason, that’s still quite dumb.

I don’t know if it is drugs, or some neural damage caused by covid, but his recent actions didn’t bring him any profits only loses. Tesla is getting less and less sales despite sales of EVs going up.

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1 point

Would it help at all if he could shift the blame onto government policy?

I don’t pay much attention to things I can’t afford, but I remember reading a short conspiracy theory that Musk would absolutely love it if someone were to turn the market against EVs/Tesla, because he needs/wants Tesla to fail by excuse of “government” and not because he’s running into the ground. Exhibit A: AI Self Driving Exhibit C: Cybertruck.

Looks better on his resume that way? Gotta preserve that image to preserve that income.

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5 points
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In that case he miscalculated, because the Tesla is failing at the benefit of the competition.

Tesla did help to cross the chasm for EV, but instead of maintaining lead in the area it is right now on the path to irrevelance and largely thanks to Musk.

As for the prices, I don’t know what country you live in, but in the US EVs now cost about the same as ICE.

Also for cyber truck, yeah that’s a total failure. I mean I see few of them in my area, but it feels like people bought it more to show that can spend that much, but it feels like they have some regret. Right now I see more and more people covering them with wraps too make them look a little bit nicer. I expect that they will quickly disappear.

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9 points

I think it’s the drugs. He used to be at least somewhat sensible. In recent years he’s just been acting totally bonkers. But having unchecked power will do that to you too, of course.

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7 points

Well, drugs is obvious, but covid is also known to cause cognitive issues: https://theconversation.com/long-covid-puzzle-pieces-are-falling-into-place-the-picture-is-unsettling-233759

I mean there were some signs earlier (of course those who know him will say he always was an asshole, but at least he was better at masking it) it was 2020 when he went full bonkers.

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4 points

He can be both

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8 points
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you made three statements and two of them were wrong

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25 points

Tesla is worth about 5x more than SpaceX and Starlink

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3 points

SpaceX and Starlink are not publically traded so you can’t really compare their value.

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10 points
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I’d argue Tesla is overvalued and starting to face though competition on the EV front. SpaceX doesn’t have that problem.

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1 point
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Not that tough. No one in the US is making EV sedans under $60k. There’s Tesla and the Hyundai Ionic 6 and…

(The Chevy Bolt is discontinued last I checked.)

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3 points

Ever felt like you have been dealt a blow of injustice from a corporation? Brace yourself we are on a path to them gaining an even more powerful foothold over our lives.

A power that removes choice and forces the consumption of their conditions to maintain the high quality of life Americans have worked so hard for and have come to expect. A lot is at stake, let’s make the corporations suffer rather than us.

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Musk already made his billions from government subsidies and investments. Now is the time to pull the ladder behind him.

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US Authoritarianism

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