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I can't think of a single thing Elon has done to the benefit of society - it's all to the benefit of his personal wealth, sold to his cult-like following as "re

I can't think of a single thing Elon has done to the benefit of society - it's all to the benefit of his personal wealth, sold to his cult-like following as "real life Tony Stark and Mother Theresa"-amalgation. Builds cars to cement the status quo of the most inefficient and destructive mean of transport there is. Hypes up futuristic potential, yet unrealistic long-distance transport to derail high-speed rail investments and projects. Works on building his vision of space exploration which will become a huge environmental and technical liability for future generations when following his envisioned scale and goals.

stillkicking 4y ago
I don't really care about Elon Musk as a philanthropist or not. He's like a one-man Apple in that way. But. - The environmental problem with electric cars is undoubtedly due to the batteries, both the manufacturing and the fact that the cars are much heavier as a result. But the idea that without electric cars more people would choose for alternative modes of transport is a bit dumb. The cars are inherently luxury vehicles, and in many places, the infrastructure isn't there for a low-car/car-free lifestyle. - You don't need hyperloop to derail high-speed rail investments and projects. Simple bureaucratic ineptitude and red tape will do that. Like that story of how SNCF pulled out of California and went and built trains in Morocco instead, which was cheaper and more efficient. - What's a huge technical liability is a bloated govt space agency that takes decades to deliver projects at 100x the cost of what a commercial vendor can do, while all the people who originally built the tech are retired or about to. And all that cost isn't just money, it represents an enormous amount of time and resources spent. Chastizing SpaceX for rejuvenating the space industry seems pretty ridiculous. It seems like you're just taking Musk as a convenient target to blame, because he should spend his resources more "wisely", but each of the examples you cite is actually due to an enormous systemic ineptitude elsewhere.
mlindner 4y ago
I guess saving the government billions of dollars in money that would have otherwise gone toward corporate graft and protectionism isn't a "benefit to society". Not to mention the extensive tax revenue that follows from the operation of his companies.

stillkicking 4y ago

I don't really care about Elon Musk as a philanthropist or not. He's like a one-man Apple in that way. But. - The environmental problem with electric cars is undoubtedly due to the batteries, both the manufacturing and the fact that the cars are much heavier as a result. But the idea that without electric cars more people would choose for alternative modes of transport is a bit dumb. The cars are inherently luxury vehicles, and in many places, the infrastructure isn't there for a low-car/car-free lifestyle. - You don't need hyperloop to derail high-speed rail investments and projects. Simple bureaucratic ineptitude and red tape will do that. Like that story of how SNCF pulled out of California and went and built trains in Morocco instead, which was cheaper and more efficient. - What's a huge technical liability is a bloated govt space agency that takes decades to deliver projects at 100x the cost of what a commercial vendor can do, while all the people who originally built the tech are retired or about to. And all that cost isn't just money, it represents an enormous amount of time and resources spent. Chastizing SpaceX for rejuvenating the space industry seems pretty ridiculous. It seems like you're just taking Musk as a convenient target to blame, because he should spend his resources more "wisely", but each of the examples you cite is actually due to an enormous systemic ineptitude elsewhere.

mlindner 4y ago

I guess saving the government billions of dollars in money that would have otherwise gone toward corporate graft and protectionism isn't a "benefit to society". Not to mention the extensive tax revenue that follows from the operation of his companies.