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Not much. First, don't underestimate the power of the auto companies along with their associated labour. There are many votes there. Second, most of the coun
by hnnewguy 13y ago
Not much.
First, don't underestimate the power of the auto companies along with their associated labour. There are many votes there.
Second, most of the country has no clue who or what Tesla is, and as an "issue" it's the least of their concern. They want jobs, a good economy, sometimes to know whether the president believes in god, and other things. Whether rich people can buy their expensive cars in New Jersey isn't a priority, and that's how this story can be sold.
These laws will fall, eventually, because they're stupid.
>Few capitalists today embody the Ayn Randian entrepreneur-as-hero persona quite as convincingly as Tesla CEO Elon Musk
I don't think John Galt would have taken government subsidies.
Edit: replaced "No it won't" with "Not much", since I'm sure there will be some sort of effect.
- kaliblack 13y ago> No it won't. The article even backs this up by saying that Rubio and Perry may try to use it against Christie. At the very most it argues that Tesla could help decide who isn't president.
- rayiner 13y agoAlso, Space X not only stands on the shoulders of giants at NASA, who were all publicly funded, but half of its funding has come from NASA pre-payments on launch contracts. Musk is a great example of the current American approach to R&D working: use public funding and subsidies to get technology off the ground, then transition to the private sector once it attains a certain level of maturity.
- pmorici 13y ago"use public funding and subsidies to get technology off the ground, then transition to the private sector once it attains a certain level of maturity." It's the belt way bandit model.
- sp332 13y agoI thought that was the point of the subsidies? It's not like the subsidies were designed to exist forever. They're just to accelerate the development of tech that isn't yet economical.
- saosebastiao 13y agoElon is quite the anomaly though. Most businesses will take your subsidy and turn it into a self-perpetuating leech as opposed to a business.
- gamblor956 13y agoSpaceX is not an anomaly; most businesses that take subsidies for new industry markets either fail or go on to become successful companies. We simply hear about SpaceX more on HN because of Elon's relationship to tech, whereas most similarly situated companies don't have that name brand connection or are in fields that most HNers know nothing about.
- phaemon 13y ago> I don't think John Galt would have taken government subsidies. Why not? Ayn Rand did.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]