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Never underestimate hype in keeping stuff alive, and absolutely never underestimate the willingness of government to save companies that should go under. I don

Never underestimate hype in keeping stuff alive, and absolutely never underestimate the willingness of government to save companies that should go under. I don’t much care for Keynes, but as I’ve gotten older, the “wild animal spirits” makes more sense as markets are seemingly never rational. Even when they are, the government now likes to “bail out” companies that the market has said ought fall. For Musk, be he one thing or another, he has been a political animal from the start. He chose sectors where government money was available, where politicians could gain credibility with the public by supporting his companies (electric cars, solar, space), and he consistently got the hype running high enough to provide radical over-valuations. When the political winds began to shift, so did he. He immediately pivoted to position himself no-longer as center-left, but somewhere right-of-center when the majority of the USA went that direction. The primary issue with this is that to the US right… electric cars and solar aren’t too interesting, and space while admirable isn’t a priority. I think that any prognostication on the death of Tesla is a bit hasty, but Musk’s usual strategy is certainly in question.

short_sells_poo 2y ago
I struggle to understand what is Musk's endgame here. 95% of Tesla's client base is (was) upper-middle class liberal/left leaning professionals. He spent the last 4 years relentlessly trolling and ostracizing these people, and then seemingly went full loony with nazi salutes, re-tweeting far right accounts on X and to top it all off he endorsed the far right political parties in Europe, which really pushed the nail into the coffin. The US admin who was championed by Musk wasted no time to cancel EV subsidies and investments into charging infrastructure and is currently pushing "beautiful, clean coal". This seems like the most braindead, schizophrenic, and short-sighted set of blunders I've seen in my life. A child would've been able to predict what is going to happen. So I'm really stumped. He cannot be this stupid, surely? He cannot be this ignorant of the impact of his own actions? Is he really so deep in an echo chamber that he thought the Tesla gravy train will just keep going? Tesla as a brand is basically dead in Europe - one of his biggest markets. There's no salvaging this. No comeback that he can engineer. Maybe he saves his bacon in the US by enough government money grift to keep Tesla alive, but he'd have to do a ridiculous amount of it to keep the dream of >100 PE ratio valuation going.
- ohnoitsahuman 2y ago
  Many of us upper-class liberals have moved to the right. Shitty cities filled with crime and weirdos after your kids will do that to you.
  - ffudklif 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - Bluntiiono 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - damnesian 2y ago
    that's no solution. The standard of a workable city is Stockholm, not Tampa.
  - marricks 2y ago
    Most people dislike Trump, Musk, and Vance. Musk is by far the least liked of the three. People in the country very much dislike the status-quo, hence the dislike of the Democratic Party and voters going for ape-shit change over Biden. I sincerely doubt working people will see their lives improves this term and change their mind on Trump; there wasn't a liberal shift to the right and we'll likely see a major reaction of everyone going to the left when they realize dismantling everything hurt everyone.
  - bdangubic 2y ago
    yea, all right is working on is fixing this shit for ya. feel safe already, just like I did in 2016-2020. those were the times… now I am already starting to feel safer too, it is unbelievable :)
- gs17 2y ago
  At this point I'm largely surprised the Cybertruck didn't come with an accessory that allows you to roll coal from a separate diesel tank. But I really agree, it feels like a guy with investments in solar and EVs could have got more out of working with the party that want to invest more in both of those instead of eliminating both of them. I guess when you reach a certain amount of money (combined with drug abuse) your incentives become hard to understand.
maximinus_thrax 2y ago
> absolutely never underestimate the willingness of government to save companies that should go under This is my biggest worry. As Musk is now basically part of the government, I wouldn't be surprised for Tesla to be deemed 'of strategic importance' and bailed out by the taxpayer. It's compatible with the privatized profits - socialized losses policy we've all been accustomed to.

short_sells_poo 2y ago

I struggle to understand what is Musk's endgame here. 95% of Tesla's client base is (was) upper-middle class liberal/left leaning professionals. He spent the last 4 years relentlessly trolling and ostracizing these people, and then seemingly went full loony with nazi salutes, re-tweeting far right accounts on X and to top it all off he endorsed the far right political parties in Europe, which really pushed the nail into the coffin. The US admin who was championed by Musk wasted no time to cancel EV subsidies and investments into charging infrastructure and is currently pushing "beautiful, clean coal". This seems like the most braindead, schizophrenic, and short-sighted set of blunders I've seen in my life. A child would've been able to predict what is going to happen. So I'm really stumped. He cannot be this stupid, surely? He cannot be this ignorant of the impact of his own actions? Is he really so deep in an echo chamber that he thought the Tesla gravy train will just keep going? Tesla as a brand is basically dead in Europe - one of his biggest markets. There's no salvaging this. No comeback that he can engineer. Maybe he saves his bacon in the US by enough government money grift to keep Tesla alive, but he'd have to do a ridiculous amount of it to keep the dream of >100 PE ratio valuation going.

ohnoitsahuman 2y ago
Many of us upper-class liberals have moved to the right. Shitty cities filled with crime and weirdos after your kids will do that to you.
- ffudklif 2y ago
  [flagged]
- Bluntiiono 2y ago
  [flagged]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- damnesian 2y ago
  that's no solution. The standard of a workable city is Stockholm, not Tampa.
- marricks 2y ago
  Most people dislike Trump, Musk, and Vance. Musk is by far the least liked of the three. People in the country very much dislike the status-quo, hence the dislike of the Democratic Party and voters going for ape-shit change over Biden. I sincerely doubt working people will see their lives improves this term and change their mind on Trump; there wasn't a liberal shift to the right and we'll likely see a major reaction of everyone going to the left when they realize dismantling everything hurt everyone.
- bdangubic 2y ago
  yea, all right is working on is fixing this shit for ya. feel safe already, just like I did in 2016-2020. those were the times… now I am already starting to feel safer too, it is unbelievable :)
gs17 2y ago
At this point I'm largely surprised the Cybertruck didn't come with an accessory that allows you to roll coal from a separate diesel tank. But I really agree, it feels like a guy with investments in solar and EVs could have got more out of working with the party that want to invest more in both of those instead of eliminating both of them. I guess when you reach a certain amount of money (combined with drug abuse) your incentives become hard to understand.

maximinus_thrax 2y ago

> absolutely never underestimate the willingness of government to save companies that should go under This is my biggest worry. As Musk is now basically part of the government, I wouldn't be surprised for Tesla to be deemed 'of strategic importance' and bailed out by the taxpayer. It's compatible with the privatized profits - socialized losses policy we've all been accustomed to.