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If Tesla fails to deliver on the tech hype promises, is he really that rich?

wat10000 1y ago
He bought Twitter, he bought an election, he founds startups basically for fun. And even if Tesla evaporated today, he’d still be one of the richest people on the planet.
- Grimblewald 1y ago
  High net worth != rich and certainly != smart Even being rich != smart he is certainly rich by most peoples standards but his networth is enormously inflated and represents unrealised capital which he gas succesfully leveraged for things like buying political influence. That being said, most of those we would call intelligent in this kind of discussion are not good woth money, they're good woth more practical and interesting things. Things that aren't total figments of our collective imagination. Being good with money is like being good in theology.
  - wat10000 1y ago
    There is no way a net worth of over four hundred billion Earth dollars is not "rich." Yeah, net worth and liquidity aren't exactly equivalent, but your statement on that has exactly zero relevance here. As far as intelligence goes, there are certainly ways to become rich without it. But Musk didn't do it any of those ways as far as I can tell. I totally get why people would say he misleads people and his stated wealth is inflated as a result. He has enormously overpromised and underdelivered, no doubt about that. But I can't understand saying that is the only element of his success. Forget about his blather for a second. Tesla has sold millions of cars. SpaceX has done hundreds of successful orbital launches. You can't fake that. Is he entirely responsible for those successes? Of course not. Could Tesla and SpaceX have achieved those things if the only thing Musk brought to the table was a relatively paltry amount of money? I really don't see how. You're telling me that this guy founded rocket company with $90 million that two decades later accounts for more than half of all orbital launches on the planet, and he's a talentless hack and only succeeds because he's willing to lie and his fans are too stupid? That doesn't add up.

He bought Twitter, he bought an election, he founds startups basically for fun. And even if Tesla evaporated today, he’d still be one of the richest people on the planet.

Grimblewald 1y ago
High net worth != rich and certainly != smart Even being rich != smart he is certainly rich by most peoples standards but his networth is enormously inflated and represents unrealised capital which he gas succesfully leveraged for things like buying political influence. That being said, most of those we would call intelligent in this kind of discussion are not good woth money, they're good woth more practical and interesting things. Things that aren't total figments of our collective imagination. Being good with money is like being good in theology.
- wat10000 1y ago
  There is no way a net worth of over four hundred billion Earth dollars is not "rich." Yeah, net worth and liquidity aren't exactly equivalent, but your statement on that has exactly zero relevance here. As far as intelligence goes, there are certainly ways to become rich without it. But Musk didn't do it any of those ways as far as I can tell. I totally get why people would say he misleads people and his stated wealth is inflated as a result. He has enormously overpromised and underdelivered, no doubt about that. But I can't understand saying that is the only element of his success. Forget about his blather for a second. Tesla has sold millions of cars. SpaceX has done hundreds of successful orbital launches. You can't fake that. Is he entirely responsible for those successes? Of course not. Could Tesla and SpaceX have achieved those things if the only thing Musk brought to the table was a relatively paltry amount of money? I really don't see how. You're telling me that this guy founded rocket company with $90 million that two decades later accounts for more than half of all orbital launches on the planet, and he's a talentless hack and only succeeds because he's willing to lie and his fans are too stupid? That doesn't add up.