Lots of companies are making EV now. There is no reason to buy a Tesla. Not until they get sane leadership anyway.
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Elon Musk always chafed at ideas like workplace safety, product quality control and living wages for the workforce. So naturally he has no problems moving his HQ to a state quickly devolving to Mad Max conditions.
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Other more established auto makers are far better about quality control and customer service.
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except that one thing
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If I have a factory that use nasty chemicals to make the products, say a battery factory, a government that doesn’t regulate anything it’s a good idea.
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I have hated and always will hate Elon Musk. But as a recent transplant from the Bay Ares to a Texas-like state, all I can say is I enjoy being able to eat AND pay rent again, and I have no doubt Tesla’s Texas employees will feel the same way if they make the move.
NIMBYist housing policy has destroyed Bay Area livability and makes it a very expensive place to employ people. All of the red states’ problems notwithstanding, moving a manufacturing business to one of them is probably one of Musk’s more intelligent business moves.
He’s such a prat. The more I find out about this guy the less I like him. Let him clear off to Mars and stay there.
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Manchild
Spicy space war? Is Dune out yet? No, just billionaires comparing ballistic phalli.
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Yeah the cognitive dissonance here is pretty loud.
Oh wait–what’s that tap-tap-tapping I hear? (puts hand to ear)
Why, it’s the sound of a whole buncha nails being driven into the coffin of “old Austin” so we can have a new Austin. Huh. (Musk’s circus is moving to Travis County, which is the Texas county that Austin is in.)
I live in the Austin metro-sprawl-itan, where now renters–not just home buyers–are offering extra money over asking prices for rent and deposits so they can cut ahead in line and get a rental to live in.
I prob’ly need to get out my stationery and write a nice thank you note to Elon Musk right now, for bringing all this to a head in Texas. I’ll be gettin’ to that directly, soon as I sell one of my kidneys to cover the escalating living costs around here.
Meantime, Elon’ll just rub a big ol’ pile o’ money on it, it’ll be alright. The Texas lege’ll line up to help out that boot-strappy scamp! Just you wait ‘n’ see.
Our state’ll still be governed by the same ol’ traitorous oil-industry lackeys amd kleptocrats, they’ll just lash out at other sensible things (clean water, breathable air, gun control, an electricity grid that won’t fail and end up killing hundreds of people in winter, a living wage, affordable housing, state constabulary that won’t kill nonwhite folks) instead.
This is dead easy trajectory to call: lookit Boehner. A [orange-ish] dyed-in-the-wool Republican.
He’s shilling for the cannabis industry now.
What could possibly have motivated Jim Boehner? or Musk? or any in their crowd?
/s
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As they say - hate the artist, like the art. I drive a Tesla 3 in Texas, and love the car. I can’t imagine driving another ICE vehicle again. It’s unfortunate the company is run by an a-hole, but the vehicle itself is a game-changer, at least for me.
Nailed it.
With or without NIMBYist policies, the Bay Area could never be as affordable as the Austin area just due to geography. At 271 square miles the city of Austin has nearly 6 times the amount of land as San Francisco, (with roughly the same population) and it has suburbs spreading out unrestricted in every direction. Even the parts of the Bay Area that aren’t on a peninsula have mountains, bays, protected park land, and other major restrictions to expansion. Given the restrictions on available open land I doubt there’s any possible housing policy that could makes Bay Area land anywhere near as cheap as Texas land.
Taxes are another matter I guess, but personally I think that the Cal State university system and other public institutions are worth the cost, but YMMV.
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Right, you can live in a hot dry bowl with a small river running through it, miles from “a body of water” (the Gulf) or in a nature preserve surrounded by the Pacific. The costs aren’t going to match up.
San Francisco is a global tourist attraction, while Austin is a city in Texas.
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Ditto Manhattan. Rent doesn’t cost less for a one-bedroom apartment somewhere in the Midwest than it costs for a one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side because people in the Midwest are economic geniuses, it costs less because there are a lot more places to put apartment buildings and a lot fewer people who want to live there.
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And the women will LOVE the lack of bodily autonomy! Nothing more fun than forced pregnancies!!! /s
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I am so sorry. I have a brother who retired to Austin a few years ago – it’s the home of his heart – but he’s considering immigrating to Spain now.
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Plenty of us looking to not just get out of Texas, but whether it’s sensible to get out of the U.S. Austin’s a great town, and certainly is or was the leftiest town in Texas, but there’s a significant number of us wondering just how safe we’re going to be, and for how long.
Good luck to your brother.
We have family friends who live in Central Austin and just sold their home. They are moving to Portugal. They have no family or friends there. They just see the move as an upgrade for themselves and their youngsters.
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At least the runaway housing market will give escapees a nice nest egg.
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