Why are dumb people jealous of geniuses like Elon, Bezos, and Hardisty

Im not trying to beat you up and your premise is good. But I think you're missing the mark.

Im fortunate my employer doesn't replace me because I need to miss work for an extended period of time. But most of my previous employers would have no problem replacing me. I understand that. Musk needs factory workers. He has no legal, moral or ethical duty not to fill those positions with willing workers. That is the nature of factory work. If someone wants a job where they can sit on the internet at home and criticize people all day while getting paid, find a job that does that.
I can't comment on the safety issue. Just as Amazon allegedly has unsafe work environments. Ive worked jobs that were dangerous and I know inept people would get hurt if they attempted them. Maybe there is merit to the allegations. Or maybe Tesla doesn't have big unions to protect them.

And to think Tesla is an expensive luxury car for the rich .... No, its not a Kia. But most of the cars being manufactured now are the Model 3 and Model Y. A basic model falls within range of the average price of a vehicle....and that basic model still has better features and safety than even the best of luxury ICE models. Sure, most Tesla owners opt to add 15-20k to shave a couple seconds off the initial acceleration and to add auto pilot, but you still can get a damn good car for 37k. Not economical but not exactly expensive either.

There is plenty of room to criticize Musk. And we should be discussing some of his ambitions. Nobody is discussing the dangers of Starlink. I have a massive concern about his ambition to build a global low latency high output internet service. Currently no entity in the world controls any significant amount of the global infrastructure in communication. The Chinese and Russian governments have the biggest dominance due to their socialistic nature. In the US, the infrastructure is divided up between the likes of Comcast, Spectrum, Verizon and ATT and hundreds of others. But to have 1 guy have a monopoly on a global communication platform, not to mentioned the fastest, is very very concerning to me. And should I mentioned he has a near monopoly on the deployment of this infrastructure? (SpaceX) Think what someone could do with the stock market if they could have all the data before anyone else. And no, my concern is not him getting wealthy from the stock market.

But yet we are worried about Musk replacing a few workers over the Coronavirus ...

 

It's disturbing that Musk first told workers they could go home to avoid COVID and then fired those who did and thus instilling fear as a weapon to pressure workers to violate local stay at home orders to come into work. That is 100% unethical and shows the man can not be trusted.

I don't believe for a second that when your "low-end" product is $37K, you're trying to save the masses. Current Hybrids do more for the environment than Tesla. EV vehicles are out there and improving, but Tesla is never going to be the mainstream provider of electric cars - it's just not their brand.

As for Starlink - how is adding competition to ISP's a bad thing? If this was such a concern than the answer would be to bring back Net Neutrality. But I don't see Starlink as driving ISP's out of business just as DirectTV didn't drive cable companies out of business.

 

IIRC, Musks goal is to bring EV's to the market in mass. He doesn't care how its done, as long as its done. If another manufacture can do it, I think he would be fine with that. I can't predict that any more than you can't.
The only vehicle that made strides was the Prius and that was very limiting...and expensive. Every other solution has been a pile of steaming **** or insanely expensive. And none of them addressed the issues of bringing them mainstream, such as fast charging. Or overall safety.

Instead of criticizing the guy as some heartless billionaire, perhaps you should spend more time reading up on his vision and his accomplishments. When fully autonomous vehicles are mainstream, you can thank Musk for the tens of thousands of lives that will be saved that would have otherwise have died from traffic accidents in the shitty Chevy Volts you envision.

Wow. If all you can think about is NN and putting ISP's out of business .... you have completely missed the mark. He is not going to put ISP's out of business. And WTF is NN going to do? Do you even know what Starlink is? Its. In. Space. If the US government pisses him off just as the government in California did, he will simply move his operations to Russia.
Again I ask you, what kind of power does a person or government have if they have a seamless communication network that can cover every inch of this planet. And all you can think about is Net Neutrality. Here is a hint. He could give free internet to N. Korea, Iran and Venezuela. How quick do you think someone could topple a restrictive government by feeding them propaganda? Trying thinking beyond your little political echo chamber for a minute.

 

I have followed Musk as well as many entrepreneurs throughout his early days in the 90's before he sold PayPal. It seems like you are rather unfamiliar with him and his policies. Just because he has a vision doesn't mean everyone should jump on board. It also doesn't give him the right to mistreat people and my criticism that he is not a humanitarian but a megalomaniac playing one is 100% fair and accurate. I don't understand what your push back is because I haven't said he shouldn't be stopped from making cars, just that he should improve the conditions of his workers. What's the problem with that? By the way a Prius is less than $25K before tax incentives. Try getting a Tesla for that amount. And self-driving technology is far away from being a reality - and likely won't come from Tesla but more likely come from another company.

As for Starlink - duh - everyone knows it's space. But to say that a Satellite global ISP doesn't compete with land based cable/fiber is just ridiculous. They do compete. Consumers don't care whether their data flows through the ground, the air, or the space. They care about price, latency, and choice. There's no need to project your ignorance about the industry onto me. NN is would ensure consumer choice. And if you really wanted to stop starlink from becoming some evil big brother tool, than you should favor things like NN which would prevent an ISP from pumping propaganda to an audience.

I mean, do you really understand NN? Sounds like you are the one living in an echo chamber and have labeled something you don't understand as "liberal propaganda". I thought maybe you had an awakening and were don't with the bs extreme politicizing and personal attacks.

 

These are still people..... my philosophy of the world is there are too many people that just need a good ole ass kicking to remind them they are still human.

I don't get the hero worship with the guys, especially Musk. Musk is a smart guy but he got lucky with timing, a lot of government funding, and a pushover of a SEC.

 

LOL. 99ers aren't getting out of orbit.... they can't even make better thread titles than Carl Herrera.

Rookie threads.....

 

But its one coool cat.....

Some of you 99ers assume you are Hakeem but you are Pete Chilcutt.... sorry to say.

 

So you're telling me Russia and China adhere to US NN policy? This is exactly what you're stating. Do you actually think there is a giant fiber cable running from each Starlink satellite down to Redmond Washington ... and if Musk doesn't adhere to NN policy, they will send CHAZ protesters to Redmond to cut the link?

There will be hundreds of teleports all over the world. The US does not own space. Starlink is a private corporation that can easily relocate to anywhere in the world.
What is NN going to do again? What is the US going to do if he uses it for something that goes against the best interest of the US? These are my concerns but yet you are dragging up politics.

Musks accomplishments, not ambitions, are starting to exceed any one particular governments power. And as I agreed with you, Musk is not concerned about the individual. He wasn't born in the US. His loyalties are only to his ambitions. He is only here because of our pro capitalistic ways. California turned on him now he's on his way to Texas. I will not be surprised if he eventually leaves the United States.

 

Nah..... yall are Tito and I'm Michael.

 

Of course NN doesn't apply to China or Russia, why are you worried about China and Russia? They are already totalitarian regimes which controls all media channels including the internet. Not sure why you would think a global satellite internet would matter for them - they probably would never allow their citizens access to it anyway.

How did California turn on Musk?

 

Tesla is a hugely successful brand, it has managed to be in an enviable spot, much like the iPhone, or Tide, or Coke. That's from a marketing perspective.

Musk has received billions across different gov't levels to be able to get where he is. Musks work is highly derivative, SpaceX, which itself is funded by billions of taxpayer dollars, is built on decades of work and billions in investment from government agencies. A huge percentage of Teslas on the road are subsidized, and that's again without taking into account all the publicly funded research that took place. Reusable rockets and electric cars are much easier to turn into a company in the 21st century than before.