Think how much society could benefit it someone came up with a simulation that they could run on Musk’s phone that replaces all social media with an elaborate Truman Show fake and avoids any back and forth Twitter exchanges or feuds with journalists or any political news of any kind.
Just make cool shit, Musky!
I seriously can’t tell if Elon’s just having a laugh and trolling everyone these days from his evil villain lair.
If he was a socialist, he wouldn’t be trying to shut down the unionization of his plant! Just because he’s rich doesn’t mean he gets to redefine what words mean!
In what universe are Republicans not just taking Elon’s money (and that of Intel, Google, Apple, etc.) and laughing all the way to the bank ballot box? Because really, that’s exactly what’s happening.
They. Will. Never. Listen. To. You.
Calm down, no one’s being given “a chunk of your money.”
People who buy EVs and PHEVs are being allowed to keep a somewhat larger chunk of their own money than they otherwise might.
Are you suggesting that that money somehow magically ‘belongs to you’ because the government could have taken if they had wanted to?
Government budgeting is not zero-sum. Taxes can be reduced on one group without raising taxes for everyone else. Governments taking in less revenue can reduce expenditures, borrow money, print money, or cut waste.
Government gives you money: that’s a subsidy. Government lets you keep a bit more of the money you already have (subject to conditions, like buying an electric car or donating to charity or some other government-ordained social good), that’s a tax break, usu. used as an incentive.
Tax break/incentive =/= subsidy.
The failure to distinguish between “tax breaks” and “subsidies” is one of the reasons that almost all online conversations complaining about “subsidies” should roundly ignored, Especially “taxpayer subsidies”, a fairly reliable indicator of misplaced and uninformed rage.
Tesla critics, in particular, seem very confused; not only do they think a tax credit is a “subsidy”, but they also think a loan — repaid ahead of schedule, with interest — is also a “taxpayer subsidy.”
Idiots. US taxpayers made a profit on the Tesla factory-loan deal, AND helped to create thousands of clean-tech jobs, which generate millions more in taxes. No taxpayer dollars were harmed.
But still, they whine.
Good point, but if he were really a socialist, wouldn’t he be turning over his company to government operation?
I think you’re right… this is just dipshit trolling. It’s like saying, “I’m actually a vegan, just not the kind who gets their all calories from non-animal sources.” If you make up your own definitions for things, you can be anything you want!
Not necessarily, no. There is a spectrum in socialist politics, from the communist model of the 20th century in the Soviet Union, etc, to multi party systems that have socialist parties, some industries that are state controlled, others that are privately held, but with strong regulations in place to protect workers.
Busting up unions falls literally no where on the spectrum. The more authoritarian forms of socialism has not independent labor parties, while states with multi-party systems with socialist parties usually have very independent and well regulate/protected labor unions.
Again, Musk is a capitalist with strong libertarian leanings. He’s not an anarchist or a socialist in any meaningful sense of the words.
but it is neither utopian (except perhaps in a dystopian sense) nor even remotely anarchistic.
Yes, there are lots of different kinds of mixed economies.
But I do see a number of comments here on bb and elsewhere to the effect that “capitalism is the problem” or “capitalism must be stopped”. I read those as “no privately held industries should be permitted”.
If what some of those people really mean is “there should be much stronger worker protection under our capitalist system” they should make that clear, and I agree with them.
Or he could hand direct control of them to the workers.
Musk would still have a say in how his companies are run, but it will be no more or less than any other individual worker has.
Often that’s shorthand around here for “late-stage capitalism is the problem” or “neoliberalism run amok must be stopped.” In a sense using that shorthand buys into the idea that “free” market extremism is the one-and-only form of capitalism but it’s also clear that most people doing (including young people who identify as socialists) so would not prefer a command economy.
Ironically, the logical outcome for the GOP’s economic programme of deregulation would see large monopolistic corporations supplanting government entirely and instituting what would in effect be a command economy. That’s why Musk, who’s had to waste time and energy getting around local car dealership cartels, should know better than to give a blanket donation to a party that supports such anti-competitive mechanisms.
Capitalism, unfettered, is a problem. When profit is the only motive, then human life becomes a commodity or worse. It needs to go farther than “worker protections.” Workers need an equal seat at the table, always. Again, socialism doesn’t always mean the state owns the means of production. It’s one variant, but not the only one.
And FWIW, I’m a fan of worker self-management that @anon73430903 notes below.
Either way, Elon Musk is a neoliberal, libertarian capitalist, not an anarchist or a socialist. Full stop.
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