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Elon Musk's livelihood depends on people wanting to live in separated housing (so they can each have powerwalls and solar-paneled roofs) and wanting to move thr

Elon Musk's livelihood depends on people wanting to live in separated housing (so they can each have powerwalls and solar-paneled roofs) and wanting to move through their regions in separated vehicles. It doesn't take Upton Sinclair to understand why he would use every propaganda outlet he can find to push that agenda.

OtterCoder 9y ago
Elon Musk's livelihood doesn't actually depend on anything anymore. That's what being rich means. That said, I get your point, but I also think separated housing is necessary for my sanity.
- InitialLastName 9y ago
  I think we as a society have learned in the past few years that people can have an ENORMOUS amount of money and still have "I need more money" as a personal driving force.
  - dzhiurgis 9y ago
    Are you suggesting that Elon should start producing products that are commercially unviable in an attempt to appear charitable?
    - klez 9y ago
      No, he's suggesting that thinking desiring more money doesn't drive Musk is ridiculous.
mehrdadn 9y ago
> Elon Musk's livelihood depends on people wanting to live in separated housing (so they can each have powerwalls and solar-paneled roofs) and wanting to move through their regions in separated vehicles. It doesn't take Upton Sinclair to understand why he would use every propaganda outlet he can find to push that agenda. Somehow I don't get the feeling he's this selfish. If that's an agenda he's pushing (which I don't know one way or another), I would expect it's because he genuinely thinks it's better for society, not because he wants to make himself feel good or rake in more profit. (To re-emphasize: it's not clear to me he is pushing this agenda.)
- InitialLastName 9y ago
  > Somehow I don't get the feeling he's this selfish. If that's an agenda he's pushing (which I don't know one way or another), I would expect it's because he genuinely thinks it's better for society, I'd really like you to be right about that, but the cynic in me has to assume that's what he wants you to think (car companies run by "unselfish people who want to improve the world" sell more cars).
- peeters 9y ago
  I don't think he can credibly argue it's better for society, he's probably just a realist. The hunger for detached houses and independent cars has had a long opportunity to subside, but hasn't. So might as well make greener independent cars and detached houses. Your carbon footprint commuting on high-occupancy diesel trains while living in a 50 year old highrise is usually going to be significantly lower than commuting in a Tesla and living in green detached house.
  - danans 9y ago
    > Your carbon footprint commuting on high-occupancy diesel trains while living in a 50 year old highrise is usually going to be significantly lower than commuting in a Tesla and living in green detached house. I think it could be a tossup, depending on how green the house really is. But making a truly low carbon footprint detached suburban house is still prohibitively expensive in some climates, due to space and water heating needs. If you take the same green tech and apply it in a multidwelling context, then it becomes more economically feasible. You see something similar today with Internet services like iPass that provide gigabit Ethernet service only in buildings with more than a certain number of units.
- danans 9y ago
  It doesn't have to be selfishness. Some of this kind of thinking could be attributed to simple ignorance, because his wealth and profile deprive him of routine exposure to what he is critiquing. As others have pointed out, this is why we shouldn't treat people like Musk as having omniscience on all topics. In Musk's case, like most people as wealthy as him, he probably doesn't ever take mass transit. His impressions are drawn from a small sample of his own pre-wealth experiences, and also from the echo-chamber of similar people around him, who might have similar experiences, and therefore he focuses on, and emphasizes problems that stand out to him without the larger context of mass transit's benefits.
rndmize 9y ago
Normally I'm a fan of the "it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" idea, but not in this case. If Musk gave a shit about his livelihood, he would have banked all his Paypal money and lived off market gains. He was willing to throw it all away to get SpaceX and Tesla off the ground, which is something I respect. And "propaganda outlet"? "push that agenda"? Last I heard, this whole thing was in response to a audience question when he was talking about something else entirely.
tradersam 9y ago
Elon Musk lives here, in Southern California, where the population is incredibly sprawled. Public transportation is almost useless here. Buses run late and are somewhat dangerous, trains do not cover much if any of the three counties, and most people drive cars.
johnmarcus 9y ago
Wasn't he building a centralized battery power grid in both Australia and Puorto Rico? Or did I miss something?

OtterCoder 9y ago

Elon Musk's livelihood doesn't actually depend on anything anymore. That's what being rich means. That said, I get your point, but I also think separated housing is necessary for my sanity.

InitialLastName 9y ago
I think we as a society have learned in the past few years that people can have an ENORMOUS amount of money and still have "I need more money" as a personal driving force.
- dzhiurgis 9y ago
  Are you suggesting that Elon should start producing products that are commercially unviable in an attempt to appear charitable?
  - klez 9y ago
    No, he's suggesting that thinking desiring more money doesn't drive Musk is ridiculous.

mehrdadn 9y ago

> Elon Musk's livelihood depends on people wanting to live in separated housing (so they can each have powerwalls and solar-paneled roofs) and wanting to move through their regions in separated vehicles. It doesn't take Upton Sinclair to understand why he would use every propaganda outlet he can find to push that agenda. Somehow I don't get the feeling he's this selfish. If that's an agenda he's pushing (which I don't know one way or another), I would expect it's because he genuinely thinks it's better for society, not because he wants to make himself feel good or rake in more profit. (To re-emphasize: it's not clear to me he is pushing this agenda.)

InitialLastName 9y ago
> Somehow I don't get the feeling he's this selfish. If that's an agenda he's pushing (which I don't know one way or another), I would expect it's because he genuinely thinks it's better for society, I'd really like you to be right about that, but the cynic in me has to assume that's what he wants you to think (car companies run by "unselfish people who want to improve the world" sell more cars).
peeters 9y ago
I don't think he can credibly argue it's better for society, he's probably just a realist. The hunger for detached houses and independent cars has had a long opportunity to subside, but hasn't. So might as well make greener independent cars and detached houses. Your carbon footprint commuting on high-occupancy diesel trains while living in a 50 year old highrise is usually going to be significantly lower than commuting in a Tesla and living in green detached house.
- danans 9y ago
  > Your carbon footprint commuting on high-occupancy diesel trains while living in a 50 year old highrise is usually going to be significantly lower than commuting in a Tesla and living in green detached house. I think it could be a tossup, depending on how green the house really is. But making a truly low carbon footprint detached suburban house is still prohibitively expensive in some climates, due to space and water heating needs. If you take the same green tech and apply it in a multidwelling context, then it becomes more economically feasible. You see something similar today with Internet services like iPass that provide gigabit Ethernet service only in buildings with more than a certain number of units.
danans 9y ago
It doesn't have to be selfishness. Some of this kind of thinking could be attributed to simple ignorance, because his wealth and profile deprive him of routine exposure to what he is critiquing. As others have pointed out, this is why we shouldn't treat people like Musk as having omniscience on all topics. In Musk's case, like most people as wealthy as him, he probably doesn't ever take mass transit. His impressions are drawn from a small sample of his own pre-wealth experiences, and also from the echo-chamber of similar people around him, who might have similar experiences, and therefore he focuses on, and emphasizes problems that stand out to him without the larger context of mass transit's benefits.

rndmize 9y ago

Normally I'm a fan of the "it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" idea, but not in this case. If Musk gave a shit about his livelihood, he would have banked all his Paypal money and lived off market gains. He was willing to throw it all away to get SpaceX and Tesla off the ground, which is something I respect. And "propaganda outlet"? "push that agenda"? Last I heard, this whole thing was in response to a audience question when he was talking about something else entirely.

tradersam 9y ago

Elon Musk lives here, in Southern California, where the population is incredibly sprawled. Public transportation is almost useless here. Buses run late and are somewhat dangerous, trains do not cover much if any of the three counties, and most people drive cars.

johnmarcus 9y ago

Wasn't he building a centralized battery power grid in both Australia and Puorto Rico? Or did I miss something?