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Maybe you can help me understand: Why would Elon Musk go to such lengths to kill HSR and public transit in Vegas? Is it just that he sells cars? The impact of t

Maybe you can help me understand: Why would Elon Musk go to such lengths to kill HSR and public transit in Vegas? Is it just that he sells cars? The impact of these projects on Tesla sales doesn't seem like it would justify such an elaborate scheme to derail them.

jmyeet 2y ago
Elon Musk has spoken on this [1]. It's such a silly argument too because nobody is forcing Elon Musk (or anyone else) to take the subway. Elon is really unexceptional here in terms of being of the billionaire class. The US billionaire class is relatively unified in trying to collect as much wealth as absolutely possible. So the likes of Koch fought public transit because of the idea of taxes. Billionaires in general simply want to reduce how many taxes they pay to collect more wealth. They'd rather people pay for their own cars rather than the government building a subway. Health insurance, high housing costs, cars and high education costs are wealth extraction from the government and ordinary citizens to the ultra-wealthy. It's exactly the same whenever you hear anyone talking about "small government" or otherwise reducing regulation. It's nothing more than wealth extraction by the ultra-wealthy. [1]: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-transit/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-t...
- pdabbadabba 2y ago
  I'm sure there are a lot of people who agree with this, and maybe it's right. But I don't really find this to be a persuasive explanation. First: Why would the billionaire class be especially concerned about taxes? They are famously lightly taxed in the U.S. and one would think that the marginal effect of taxes on their quality of life would be virtually zero. Second: What's going to be more expensive: Elon Musk's share of the tax revenue required to build high speed rail, or standing up the Boring Company to offer a fake alternative? Doubly so in Las Vegas, in a state where he doesn't even live. It does make sense to me that he'd rather have people buying Teslas than paying someone else for mass transit—which is the point I originally posited. But it's still not clear to name that the math remotely works out here, unless he thought that the Boring Company also had a real shot at succeeding and capturing some of that public transit revenue. But that, of course, would make it something other than pure sabotage.
  - 0xBDB 2y ago
    I suspect a part of Elon's issue is pure ideology. However, I am a railfan (I even ride long-distance Amtrak for fun) and a Texan advocate of building HSR from Dallas to Houston, and I have to say he at least has a point about California specifically. A French contractor involved in that project famously pulled out saying that North Africa was far less politically dysfunctional. https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed-rail-north-africa-biden-trump-2022-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed...

jmyeet 2y ago

Elon Musk has spoken on this [1]. It's such a silly argument too because nobody is forcing Elon Musk (or anyone else) to take the subway. Elon is really unexceptional here in terms of being of the billionaire class. The US billionaire class is relatively unified in trying to collect as much wealth as absolutely possible. So the likes of Koch fought public transit because of the idea of taxes. Billionaires in general simply want to reduce how many taxes they pay to collect more wealth. They'd rather people pay for their own cars rather than the government building a subway. Health insurance, high housing costs, cars and high education costs are wealth extraction from the government and ordinary citizens to the ultra-wealthy. It's exactly the same whenever you hear anyone talking about "small government" or otherwise reducing regulation. It's nothing more than wealth extraction by the ultra-wealthy. [1]: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-transit/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-awkward-dislike-mass-t...

pdabbadabba 2y ago
I'm sure there are a lot of people who agree with this, and maybe it's right. But I don't really find this to be a persuasive explanation. First: Why would the billionaire class be especially concerned about taxes? They are famously lightly taxed in the U.S. and one would think that the marginal effect of taxes on their quality of life would be virtually zero. Second: What's going to be more expensive: Elon Musk's share of the tax revenue required to build high speed rail, or standing up the Boring Company to offer a fake alternative? Doubly so in Las Vegas, in a state where he doesn't even live. It does make sense to me that he'd rather have people buying Teslas than paying someone else for mass transit—which is the point I originally posited. But it's still not clear to name that the math remotely works out here, unless he thought that the Boring Company also had a real shot at succeeding and capturing some of that public transit revenue. But that, of course, would make it something other than pure sabotage.
- 0xBDB 2y ago
  I suspect a part of Elon's issue is pure ideology. However, I am a railfan (I even ride long-distance Amtrak for fun) and a Texan advocate of building HSR from Dallas to Houston, and I have to say he at least has a point about California specifically. A French contractor involved in that project famously pulled out saying that North Africa was far less politically dysfunctional. https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed-rail-north-africa-biden-trump-2022-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/french-california-high-speed...