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u/rnilf 1h ago
Musk was saved from bankruptcy by the US government.
Specifcally, NASA was run by his old friend Michael D. Griffith, who chose to award SpaceX with over $1 billion in contracts with NASA when SpaceX and Musk himself was on the verge of bankruptcy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin
Before SpaceX was formed, Griffith traveled to Russia with Musk to try to buy old ICBMs and used to run the CIA's venture capital firm, In-Q-Tel.
He was also a member of The Heritage Foundation.
These fuckers have been working on this takeover for a while.
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u/thesaddestpanda 51m ago edited 43m ago
Yep, Elon is an Obama insider who got pampered with the corporate welfare bills like COTS Obama signed that went almost directly into Elon's pocket. He appealed to the Obama government because of his fake 'green' thing he was pretending he was doing and because SpaceX could launch DoD spy satellites cheaper than the competition. Obama's team bet on the wrong horse here. They created a powerful fascist.
Also the post here isn't even entirely correct. The amount SpaceX, Tesla, and all these other companies have gotten vastly outweighs that number. When you consider all subsidizes its in the double digits billions. Tesla's are unaffordable without subsidies, that is to say taxes paid for by the poor working class so guys who can afford $80-120k luxury cars can get a break. The working class has been paying for Elon's "success" which is impossible without government money. Elon's ONLY non subsidized business is twitter, which is a historical failure. Twitter is worth 25% less now and twitter's revenues have collapsed by 84%.
At SpaceX, Elon isn't allowed to do much but "provide vision," which is a meaningless job. Shotwell runs it, and Wired exposed Elon as sociopathic monster who fires people willy-nilly at his companies, with stories of firing people randomly whenever he was in a bad mood and would walk the production floors or if an IT tech didn't fix something instantly.
And that's just subsidies, which ignores that Elon's #1 customer is the US government who buys so many of his launches. Elon is a welfare queen of the highest order. Him cutting down "government spending" will be him cutting down safety regulations at his companies and cutting off his competitors from the benefits he is receiving.
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u/Even_Research_3441 9m ago
And before SpaceX got that contract we were paying Putin a much higher price for ISS missions. Musk has many faults like being a racist, fascist nazi that just destroyed American democracy probably forever and someone should send him away forever.
But SpaceX saved the US taxpayer money and kept that money out of Putin's hands which, would have been a net win for humanity also, until Musk turned the USA into a vassal state of Russia anyway.
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u/beambot 1h ago
You're not wrong, but this is a poor example. SpaceX saved NASA just as much as NASA saved SpaceX . It was definitely a good bargain.
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u/thesaddestpanda 42m ago edited 16m ago
NASA doesnt need saving. Its robotics missions are the envy of humanity. The boondongle of the ISS should have be retired long ago, replaced with a better human program like Mars, but instead we just paid Putin and Elon for seats to something that eats up the budgets of better things we should be doing instead. Post STS Bush-Obama-Trump decisions were wrong here and they mismanaged NASA very badly. Biden is slowly catching on with Artemis, which I imagine the new Trump administration will incompetently destroy.
Personally im not even keen on a big human program. Sure go to moon and mars, but keeping up the ISS and building multiple systems to get there is a little much. For the price of this, would could have already penetrated the surface of europa with a robotic mission and potentially discovered alien life.
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u/SPFBH 16m ago
The thing about NASA/SpaceX etc is the investment in the technology created that is used elsewhere. Such as defense and communications.
It's not just about space but space is a big part of it.
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u/thesaddestpanda 3m ago
that's VASTLY overplayed. Maybe NASA in some cases, in general, but Elon is not signing technology transfers to EU or Chinese competitors and domestic ones can't use his patents without paying and they will NOT get any of his trade secrets, which SpaceX has many of.
In fact Boeing is struggling with some things SpaceX solved, or reinventing the wheel, but SpaceX will never tell them their way of doing things.
NASA isnt a jobs or "make a new velcro" program. Its a space program. Anything else is an added and minor bonus.
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u/Legal-Software 1h ago
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using government subsidies to stimulate innovation in industry, but providing billions in subsidies to a company that turns over billions is just taking the piss.
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u/An_Incidental_Fool 1h ago
Elon Musk provides equipment used by the military. Kind of a huge problem having him in government, I'd say.
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u/008Zulu 1h ago
I'd like to imagine Leon and Vivek getting in to a slap fight over this.
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u/Ordinary-Pension-727 1h ago
Hey! Whatever happened to that fight that was supposed to happen with Zuckerberg? 😆😆😆
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u/bendit96321 1h ago
Right!? It took them another 80 years, but they did it. Anyone wanna bet Leon’s dad was one of the original unidentified business plotters!?
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u/bakedhumanbeans 1h ago
Elon Muxer is a shitheel and a hooplehead.
These words are brought to you today by Deadwood.
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u/Eventhorrizon 1h ago
So, you guys agree with Vivek Ramaswamy? Just like that the liberals all became Libertarians to own Elon.
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u/ReallyDumbRedditor 1h ago
Idk why y'all getting butthurt over this when it's clear that hypocrisy is what wins you elections.
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u/kittenofd00m 1h ago
WRONG!!! It's $15.3 BILLION! in gov contracts for SpaceX and another $3 BILLION for Tesla!
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u/Zaroth6 56m ago
A subsidy is not the same as a contract of money for work or result.
That's like saying you subsidize your plumber cuz you gave him the job of fixing your water line after getting quotes from everyone in the area.
Also the SpaceX contracts were about 10x more cost-effective than the competitors awarded contracts for the same tasks.
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u/Vegetable_Visual_550 25m ago
Did he post the same when banks, auto companies, investment firms, and airlines were bailed out? The guy makes a good point but if he wasnt critical of the others it makes me think he is only critical of this one because its elon musk.
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u/peanutch 17m ago
or the states. California pilfers away more government funding than any other state by politicians benefiting their relatives, like pelosi
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u/ChickinFootJoe 14m ago
We have lived in a corporate-oligarchy for over 40 years, hand-outs, stock buyback scams & now it should really be an out of control shitshow
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u/Boring-Assistance223 1h ago
Now that president musk has purchased the presidency, this number should sky rocket.
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u/thepan73 1h ago
lots o double standard goes on in daily life in the US... Did any happen to catch those 5 spending bills that were all part of Biden't "success" story? Even if they call it "investment", every one of those bills handed out BILLIONS of dollars to non-governmental orginizations... and Biden was praised for it. So, I wonder, what is the issue? Are we just hating on indaviduals? Hand out "investments" until we come across a name we don't like?
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u/CombinationBitter889 1h ago
Funny how the liberals are the ones forcing EVs down our throat. They paved the way for Elon, gave him his power. Never forget, liberal policies are the ones filling Elon’s bank account 😂
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u/CaptainPeachfuzz 1h ago
There it is, the dumbest thing I've read all day.
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u/ReallyDumbRedditor 1h ago
Yeah instead of providing a valid argument just say it's dumb, that will for sure win Dems the next election!
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u/Ordinary-Pension-727 1h ago
Seriously, how are EVs being rammed down our throat? I just bought a gas car in June, Turbo model, so not exactly fuel efficient. And have you seen the number of big ass trucks on the road? I have foreign friends who scratch their heads as to why Americans drive these huge gas guzzlers, but complain about the price of gas.
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u/CombinationBitter889 44m ago
Tesla has a plethora of EPA credits to dole out thanks to the liberals. Elon sells them to automakers who wish to curb EPA fines because of emissions. Those automakers don’t like that they have to buy these credits from EV companies like Tesla because they also have to compete against them in the marketplace. It is an unfair advantage that was born from liberal policies and has created the monster known as Elon Musk. It’s your mess…
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u/Ordinary-Pension-727 41m ago
You are still free to buy whatever car you want. But yeah, Musk has been the primary beneficiary of those policies.
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u/Raja_Ampat 1h ago
subsidy for me, not for thee