Elon Musk gave assistant 2-week test when she asked for raise, and she failed

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adam smith was skeptical of slavery

Land occupied by such tenants is properly cultivated at the expence of the proprietor as much as that occupied by slaves. There is, however, one very essential difference between them. Such tenants, being freemen, are capable of acquiring property, and having a certain proportion of the produce of the land, they have a plain interest that the whole produce should be as great as possible, in order that their own proportion may be so. A slave, on the contrary, who can acquire nothing but his maintenance, consults his own ease by making the land produce as little as possible over and above that maintenance. It is probable that it was partly upon account of this advantage, and partly upon account of the encroachments which the sovereign, always jealous of the great lords, gradually encouraged their villains to make upon their authority, and which seem at last to have been such as rendered this species of servitude altogether inconvenient, that tenure in villanage gradually wore out through the greater part of Europe. The time and manner, however, in which so important a revolution was brought about is one of the most obscure points in modern history. The Church of Rome claims great merit in it; and it is certain that so early as the twelfth century, Alexander III.*18 published a bull for the general emancipation of slaves. It seems, however, to have been rather a pious exhortation than a law to which exact obedience was required from the faithful. Slavery continued to take place almost universally for several centuries afterwards, till it was gradually abolished by the joint operation of the two interests above mentioned, that of the proprietor on the one hand, and that of the sovereign on the other. A villain enfranchised, and at the same time allowed to continue in possession of the land, having no stock of his own, could cultivate it only by means of what the landlord advanced to him, and must, therefore, have been what the French call a Metayer.

Wealth of nations, Book III, Chapter 2

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*Off topic. Thinking back to this movie, i now have some strong thoughts about the premise.

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Not trying to stir up trouble, but the sentence Over on Gawker [sic], that post about the jogger who shoved the woman in front of a bus has people claiming she tries to trip him so it was “self-defense” scans as saying that jezzies were making the tried-to-trip-him claim. Compare to “has people referencing claims that she tries to trip him,” or “mentions people on Facebook claiming that she tried to trip him.” (Otherwise, someone at a site like Breitbart could “accurately” write that “over on BoingBoing, that post about Elon Musk firing his assistant has people claiming the woman shoved in front of a bus by a jogger tried to trip him, so his act was “self-defense”.”)

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LOL. When thinking of a gender neutral name, this did pop in my head.

I haven’t experianced this personally, but I have seen it happen first hand with several people who have Golden Childs for siblings. Truly sorry. It’s maddening.

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So you figure Elon Musk started an electric car company AND an orbital rocket company just to make a profit?

I dunno, but if I were a billionaire capitalist, I’m not sure those would be the very first choices on my path to easy riches. (-:

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Maybe her comment could have been framed more clearly, but the point was about people arbitrarily defending bad behavior, no matter what that behavior may be.

As for calling commenters on Jezebel “jezzies,” that seems like an unnecessary use of a diminutive; but maybe that’s just me - for all I know maybe that’s how the commenters there refer to themselves.

*shrugs

I honestly don’t care why he did anything, I just think associating someone like N. Tesla with a company like Tesla is ironic at best.

Oh, she’s not; if anything, she’s an outcast in our family who feels that we look down upon her. That’s just what people say, because we can’t force her to be a better person, or stop being related to her.

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I know some of those too :wink: Hope she sees the light and you guys can make up some time.

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Anything is possible, if not necessarily probable.

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This reminds me of my friend’s ex-wife. Her family is closer to him than they are to their own daughter/sister on account of her horribleness. (He actually lives with her brother, who at this point is more his brother.)

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It be’s like that, sometimes; just because you’re biologically related doesn’t mean that you’re ‘family.’

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…oh, and stock, too. The severance payout also included an (unspecified) amount of stock.

Personally, I thought the story as originally related here sounded pretty seriously dickish, myself.

Which is why I was fairly confident it didn’t happen like that. Elon is sometimes a bit too… ummm… direct… (-: for some peoples’ taste, but an asshole psycho-boss monster, he most definitely is not.

Lacking any actual evidence of the particular encounter in question, though (I certainly wasn’t there at the time!), I didn’t say anything earlier, lest I be mistaken for a Cult of Musk fanboy apologist.

I mean, “I dunno, but that sure doesn’t sound like Elon to me” is hardly probative. (-:

I love Elon dearly, but he’s no superhero. Brilliant, deeply rigorous engineer, deeply insightful and creative business strategist (his most often overlooked quality, but one of the most important, IMHO), hopeless video-game nerd, maker of bad ‘dad jokes’, and one of the most reflexively open and honest (yes, to a fault, sometimes!) people you’ll ever meet. (He’s really bad at “cagey” or “evasive.” (-: )

But he has his bad days, too. (-: Don’t we all?

He’s not always the easiest guy to work for (insecure egos should definitely not apply!), especially if you don’t share his enthusiasm for his visions (definitely not a place for 40-hr-a-week clock-punchers!), but employee surveys consistently report the highest job satisfaction in the industry; indeed, some of the highest across all industries.

Honestly, if this is what Evil Capitalism looks like, I’ll take it.

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O_O

Just out of curiosity, do you know him personally?

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I don’t understand. What list?

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Okay.

(Out of curiosity, how do you feel about N. Tesla’s long-standing association with industrialist George Westinghouse?)

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I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.

“Love” is a pretty strong emotion.

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Just based upon the drop box preview, whoever wrote that can go fuck themselves just like Newt can, sideways…

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yeah, it shoud have read

“Feminists Don’t Want To Admit It, But It’s Actually Biological Gender Differences That Keep Women From Succeeding In My Meticulously Engineered Mega-Labyrinth”

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Oh, is it? I dearly love chocolate-dipped strawberries, too.

I’m pretty promiscuous that way. Child of the '60s, what can I say?

Probably clearer, then, to say, “I’m quite fond of him, and greatly admire him.”

Does that help?

Not nearly as well as I’d like to (-:

More seriously, I am not really at liberty to discuss the exact details of my relationship with Mr. Musk or his companies (or, perhaps more precisely, given what I’ve said above, I really shouldn’t be any more specific about myself.)

Sorry. Routine NDAs, basically, but I’ve already said more than I probably should.

But I should probably mention, in the interests of transparency, that I do hold a substantial position in Tesla stock. I am “long Tesla”, as they say.

If my expectations for the stock pan out, my retirement will be a good deal more comfortable than it would be otherwise.

Make of that what you will.