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Tesla was built before tax payer money, they got loans for scaling. They paid them back with interest, the tax payer profited. SpaceX was also mostly built wit
by cromwellian 6y ago
Tesla was built before tax payer money, they got loans for scaling. They paid them back with interest, the tax payer profited.
SpaceX was also mostly built with Musk's personal fortune, after they developed the Merlin engine, and got the Falcon 1 to orbit, only then did they get contracts from NASA, and they actually saved NASA money, because SpaceX launch costs are significantly lower, ergo, in a way, they also paid the taxpayer back.
Pretty much most large successful companies have been subsidized by tax payer money in some way, if not by direct loans or contracts, then by taking publicly financed research from the military or academia, and commercializing it. Silicon Valley was started by Fairchild Semiconductor whose first contracts were military contracts. Computing started out funded by military. The CIA through In-Q-Tel put $150 million into 90 companies, including Google. Google Maps, acquired from Keyhole, was a CIA funded satellite mapping company.
Let's dispense with the rugged individualism. We all benefit from the government, and we all have a duty to pay it forward.
- wmf 6y agoTesla also makes money selling various environmental credits which are usually viewed as a government subsidy. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/23/teslas-sale-of-environmental-credits-help-drive-to-profitability.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/23/teslas-sale-of-environmental...
- nikolay 6y agoSo, Elon Musk first flirted with Democrats, because this is how he got the buddy favors. But this year, he probably saw a change in the wind and started to flirt with Republicans - I expect him following the wind again...
- cromwellian 6y agoWhat would you do if the local mafia showed up at your business and said "Nice little space/car company you got there, it would be a shame if something happened to it?" Call it an act of cowardice, but all of the top companies are currying favor with governments, because cronyism is everywhere, and if you are not in the game, you are out of it. Do you think SpaceX would have beat ULA, who literally had the Apollo moon landing astronauts badmouthing competitors in front of congress, if they had not curried favor? China is an especially great example of this: Don't play ball, you lose. (e.g. Google leaves China). Play ball, and find yourself continually kow-towing to keep the goodies flowing, as Tim Cook travels every year to Beijing and stroking the hearts of the government or nationalists. Until we end money in politics and ban the revolving door of lobbyists, we're not going to address the problem of contracts being handed out with questionable rationale.
- nikolay 6y agoVery well put. And to your first question - in the 90s when a friend and I had a custom PC business is Bulgaria, the mafia showed up at our business and started to negotiate a monthly insurance policy, we kicked them out. They didn't show up again and didn't do anything to our business... but, yeah, we were too small and too lucky. I'm sure if we had a lot more to lose, we'd have probably reacted differently. But I still recall them starting negotiations at 1,000 Deutsche Marks (the German currency before the Euro) per month down to 100 DEM and I still kept saying "No." Fun times!