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Especially if you take into consideration how much Musk has personally benefitted from a well funded government. >Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space

Especially if you take into consideration how much Musk has personally benefitted from a well funded government. >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 data compiled by The Times. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-2015...

abalone 10y ago
And that's just direct subsidies! Don't forget that rockets, autonomous driving[1] and solar power[2] were developed by the government. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Renewable_Energy_Laboratory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Renewable_Energy_Labo...
mason240 10y ago
The idea that he personally used $593M, much less $4.9B worth of government services in 2016 is pretty silly. He is far from being the sole owner of those companies.
- csallen 10y ago
  The idea isn't that he personally cost the government that much money in service fees. It's that, without those services, he could never have made his money in the first place.
koreyb 10y ago
Here is a good breakdown of that $4.9bn number https://electrek.co/2015/06/02/complete-breakdown-of-the-4-9-billion-in-government-support-the-la-times-claims-elon-musks-companies-are-receiving/ https://electrek.co/2015/06/02/complete-breakdown-of-the-4-9... Incentives for creating jobs & tax credits. Not bad compared to the $12 billion cost for the GM bailout and $4 billion+/yr for oil & gas subsidies.
- nojvek 10y ago
  If you look at money invested, govt should have let GM go under the bus. Bailouts aren't a great long term fix. They just encourage shitty management

abalone 10y ago

And that's just direct subsidies! Don't forget that rockets, autonomous driving[1] and solar power[2] were developed by the government. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Renewable_Energy_Laboratory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Renewable_Energy_Labo...

mason240 10y ago

The idea that he personally used $593M, much less $4.9B worth of government services in 2016 is pretty silly. He is far from being the sole owner of those companies.

csallen 10y ago
The idea isn't that he personally cost the government that much money in service fees. It's that, without those services, he could never have made his money in the first place.

koreyb 10y ago

Here is a good breakdown of that $4.9bn number https://electrek.co/2015/06/02/complete-breakdown-of-the-4-9-billion-in-government-support-the-la-times-claims-elon-musks-companies-are-receiving/ https://electrek.co/2015/06/02/complete-breakdown-of-the-4-9... Incentives for creating jobs & tax credits. Not bad compared to the $12 billion cost for the GM bailout and $4 billion+/yr for oil & gas subsidies.

nojvek 10y ago
If you look at money invested, govt should have let GM go under the bus. Bailouts aren't a great long term fix. They just encourage shitty management