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The author lost credibility with this paragraph Musk is very typical of the Silicon Valley technolibertarian mold. He was happy to take a $465 million governme
by sixQuarks 10y ago
The author lost credibility with this paragraph
Musk is very typical of the Silicon Valley technolibertarian mold. He was happy to take a $465 million government loan for Tesla Motors, then soon after paying it off, he was more than happy to speak out against government subsidies like the one he just paid back. This has been Silicon Valley’s modus operandi for years, of course: promoting the tech sector’s independence from and superiority to mundane governance, while relying on it. In a nutshell, this is the reality behind the myth of the “free market.”
The author doesn't understand the hidden subsidies on fossil fuels. If we were to bake in the cost of climate change and pollution into the price, solar energy would have never needed subsidies. And what is Musk supposed to do? Ignore and reject subsidies that are available? The author is grasping at straws here and should have done more research.
- lend000 10y agoNot to mention the lack of sufficient pollution taxes that would exist in a 'libertarian society' to counter the inherent infringements on individual liberty.
- snrplfth 10y agoLibertarians tend, by and large, to be amenable to taxing externalities like pollution.
- unprepare 10y agomuch more importantly, the author is conflating "loan" and "subsidy" which is completely insane. Tesla received a 465 million dollar /loan/ which they /paid back/ Oil receives billions in /Subsidies/ that they /do not pay back/ the only slight similarity is that the department of energy loan likely had favorable interest terms, but that would make the financial benefit to Tesla vastly less than 465 million dollars - their benefit would be the difference in total interest over the life of the DoE loan vs a market rate loan.