Elon Musk moves Tesla to Texas in Silicon Valley snub

The quote in the article was his threat from back in May to move the headquarters from California to either Nevada or Texas. He hasn't done that yet, but may... who knows.

Last week/early this week, he announced he himself was moving from California to Texas. That's basically what the article is about.

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/op...k-you-Texas-for-taking-Elon-Musk-15814547.php

I keep seeing these things, what the hell is the article talking about?

I'm not a fan of Elon, but how does Elon moving himself and company ops to TX hurt TX?

 

Lemme get a job tho

 

Reading is fundamental.

Musk may be worth over $100 billion — but he is even richer in hypocrisy and ingratitude. He cultivated the image of the lone, self-made innovator, when he was actually California’s biggest welfare case since the railroad barons.

Musk’s three signature companies — SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity — were built with billions of dollars in government contracts, subsidies and other largesse. The federal government provided much of this, including low-interest loans that kept Tesla from folding during the Great Recession. Nevada also gave Musk more than $1 billion for a battery factory.

But California has showered him with money, and provided regulations that favored the electric cars and solar panels his companies sell. Tesla has covered operating losses by selling other car companies the emissions credits it gets under California’s cap-and-trade market. California tax credits also subsidized the purchases of Tesla cars, and the development of energy storage technology...
...
Yet all of California’s support did not make Musk a good citizen of our state. Musk has compromised worker safety at Tesla’s Fremont plant, flouted securities laws and sabotaged unionization of his employees. He’s also an unrepentant peddler of misinformation to his huge Twitter following.

Most of all, Musk is California’s Frankenstein, the monster we created that then turned against us.

Even after taking so much government money, he routinely blasts our funding of safety net programs. Even after benefiting from our regulations, he accuses California of over-regulating and demands we “get out of the way” of innovators. And he has undermined public projects by pretending he had answers for the state’s most bedeviling problems. He touted an unproven Hyperloop technology as a cheaper alternative to high-speed rail (his paper on the subject stopped before detailing how it would work), and he claimed he could solve traffic problems by digging giant tunnels underground.

When the pandemic hit this year, his behavior toward California turned from hostile to unforgivably cruel.

He railed against the federal economic relief packages that millions of Californians needed — and then took money from those same packages. He accused California, in pursuing COVID restrictions, of fascism and authoritarianism, while he exchanged friendly messages with the California-hating authoritarian in the White House.

Worst of all, Musk set a dangerous example by defying the stay-at-home orders that required the closing of his Tesla factory in Fremont. He reopened the plant, a decision which may have produced a COVID-19 outbreak there. (Musk himself would later get the virus.) Unbowed, Musk kept criticizing California’s COVID-19 response, and added the threat to leave for Texas, where SpaceX already had two facilities. This fall, he made good on the threat.

On his way out, he broke all world records for chutzpah. He claimed he was leaving because California didn’t sufficiently support companies and innovation, despite all the backing the state has given him. He portrayed his departure as a righteous protest against California’s infringement on freedom — never mentioning Texas’ lack of income taxes, and recent increases in his compensation package. And in a pot-calls-out-kettle moment, Musk had the gall to accuse California of being “entitled.”

 

Poor Musk. The way some treat him, he is no different than Jeffrey Epstein.

 

there’s some salty tone in the article to be sure, but there’s also a lot of well-reported fact.

Epstein was a sick criminal. Musk is a visionary who doesn’t really care who he exploits to realize his visions. Big difference, but Musk has been a welfare king douche in Cali, especially in risking worker safety.

 

Nothing in the article should be surprising to anyone that has followed Elon in any way.

he’s generally not a “good dude”. He’s weird af, paranoid, holds grudges like you would t believe, etc.

Uber successful and a big part of that success is knowing how to manipulate the system. He’s great at it while cultivating his public persona.

I’m not mad at him.

but I am aware of what it is.

net net I think everyone probably benefits, and doesn’t benefit to some degree.

 

Jealousy

 

With all due respect, @tinman, that’s bull ****. Getting away from the BS that misguided, but otherwise nice guy @tinman dumped into the thread, Elon moving here is fine. More than fine.

We really don’t need more growth right now in most of Central Texas, but we do in far East Austin, where Elon is building a huge factory. That kind of growth we can use. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see Mr. Musk buy the Rockets someday. Elon’s pockets are deep! About as deep as you can get.

 

Great pertinent comment, but is the comparison to railroad tycoons and robber barons not more appropriate?

Can we not have a discussion of how much corporate welfare is too much, and do corporations have some semblance of responsibility to treat their workers and their community well?

 

All big companies are welfare kings.

The stars and the moon lined up for Musk. He is the right guy, at the right time at the right place. He is an amazing visionary. And he has tapped into billions of hyper excited investment money from the government for multiple projects. And he has been wildly successful. This is what we want. If he stays with the United States and his visions stay on track, he will catapult our country years, if not decades ahead of the world.

That said, I understand why California is pissed. But many on the 'fiscally' conservative side have warned California about their very generous welfare policies.

 

If you're going to be objective, pick on ones who are more guilty. Im pretty sure at this stage of the game, Musk would send back all that investment money if the government would guarantee not to stimulate his competition.

 

Don't see how that's mutually exclusive. Just because we've subsidized things for years does not make further subsidization of different things ok to me.

But again, the Epstein comparison in how he's treated is so awesome.

 

I read the whole article. I'm failing to see a substantial point being made about how Elon and Tesla is going to hurt TX in any way. Maybe there was damage done to Cali through the covid days but... does anyone care about that right now?

A lot of companies especially in Houston have already reopened their offices. Its not just Elon b****ing about being allowed to open offices or factories.

 

Local corporate tax incentives have been a total net negative for many (most?) places where they've been studied, historically. Last time I checked, at least, but it depends on the when and where I suppose.

This same argument was had repeatedly over public funding of sports stadiums.

 

Not if you tie it in with property taxes which we do have in TX.

 

This is much like the Harden fiasco. Houston and Harden have been very loyal to each other. But new management steps in and makes it impossible. Now the fans have turned on Harden. Rightfully so, but for the wrong reasons.

 

Yes, including property taxes (which is the largest part of the tax incentives in Texas), but carry on with this yourselves, it's tiresome to me.

https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/other-voices/article141534509.html

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/...the-big-bucks-for-corporate-incentives-again/

 

Californian's crying a river?

Yawn.

I would get out of the POS state ASAP too.

*Edit to clarify - I'm not defending Elon. I just don't give AF what those POS's in that POS state think.