has “earned” this way is in the neighborhood of $517 million.
Tesla is a newfangled taken on the welfare queen. Or more accurately, the EBT card – which is designed to look like a credit card. To have the appearance of a legitimate transaction … as opposed to a welfare payment.
Underneath the glitz and showmanship, that’s what all of Musk’s “businesses” are about. They all depend entirely on government – that is, on taxpayer “help” – in order to survive.
Without that “help,” none of Musk’s Tesla’s could survive.
It is estimated that Tesla’s various ventures – including his new SolarCity solar panel operation and SpaceX – have cost taxpayers at least $4.9 billion, with Tesla accounting for about half of that dole.
And he still loses money.
Musk fanbois will counter by pointing out that other businesses – including the car business – also get “help” from the government (that is, from taxpayers) which is perfectly true. But that’s not much of a defense – much less a refutation of the charge that Musk is a crony capitalist.
Which is all he is.Tesla 5
The real difference between Musk’s operations and those of say General Motors is that General Motors’s products are fundamentally viable while Tesla’s are not. GM is happy to accept government “help” when offered but it is not necessary for taxpayers to bankroll the production of Corvettes – nor provide thousands of dollars in cash incentives to each prospective buyer in order to “stimulate” sales.
The straight dope is that Tesla could not build a single car without the government’s help. Take away that “help” and the actual cost would be so prohibitive that virtually no one except perhaps fellow billionaires like Musk with money to burn on toys would buy a Tesla.
As it is – even with massive subsidies at the manufacturing level and then again at the retail level – each Tesla still “sells” at a loss of several thousand dollars per car … adding up to almost $400 million so far this year (the company just announced this; see here).
The typical Tesla “buyer,” meanwhile, has an annual income in excess of $250,000.
Why are taxpayers – the majority of them not earning $250k annually – being taxed to support the “purchase” of electric exotic cars by extremely affluent people?
Why should taxpayers be made to subsidize any of Musk’s “businesses”?crony pic
He’s a billionaire.
And – we’re constantly told – a really smart guy.
Surely he could fund (or find) the private capital necessary to fund his various projects. The fact that he could not find private – that is, willing – investors but instead has to rely on the coercive power of the government to fund his projects speaks volumes about the fundamental worth of his projects.
He “succeeds” only because of his ability to game the system, not by offering products that people are willing to pay for (using their own money, that is).
The heroic real-life Tony Stark image notwithstanding, Musk is an operator – not a creator of value.
He has more in common with the vulture capitalist oligarchs of the former Soviet Union than with the namesake of his electric car company.