Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce • Hacker News Board

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#41

Post by dschobel » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 2:44 AM UTC

lionhearted wrote: post #18

> What caught me by surprise, and forced me to seek emergency loans from friends, were the enormous legal fees I had to pay my ex-wife's divorce lawyers. In a California divorce, the wealthier spouse must pay both sides of the battle even if they are not the aggressor. > The legal and accounting bills for the divorce total four million dollars so far, which is an average of roughly $170,000 per month for the past 24…

How is it a racket if he entered into the marriage contract of his own volition?

It may be a rigged game but he played it voluntarily.

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#42

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 2:47 AM UTC

defen wrote: post #28

petercooper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychic or just being a perceptive partner in a long term relationship heading toward a life-long commitment. People can change over time in ways you wouldn't anticipate, but if you marry someone only once you know them deeply (and if you don't, you deserve what you get), you should be reasonably confident of what sort of person they are or could become.

> People can change over time in ways you wouldn't anticipate, but if you marry someone only once you know them deeply (and if you don't, you deserve what you get), you should be reasonably confident of what sort of person they are or could become. "Reasonably confident" is a remarkably weak threshold for putting half of one's future wealth on the line. What else does one deserve to get, as "punishment" for not being…

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#43

Post by commanda » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 2:49 AM UTC

pohl wrote: post #36

lionhearted wrote: post #18

> What caught me by surprise, and forced me to seek emergency loans from friends, were the enormous legal fees I had to pay my ex-wife's divorce lawyers. In a California divorce, the wealthier spouse must pay both sides of the battle even if they are not the aggressor. > The legal and accounting bills for the divorce total four million dollars so far, which is an average of roughly $170,000 per month for the past 24…

What can we do? Abandon the institution of marriage entirely. Nuke it from orbit, as it were. It's the only way to be sure. The legal end of it is a mere wealth-redistribution mechanism. The social end of it is made of community who loves to witness people getting into marriages, but they scatter during the demise. So what function does it perform? From my perspective, it only serves to weaken commitment by trying to…

Actually, yes.

Many marriages are entered into by two parties with the agreement that one party will be the primary caretaker of the children (home-maker), which is a profession that is unpaid. The other party will work outside the home and provide money for the family. In that case, the years of work that the home-maker has put in should be recognized as valid work, and in the event of a break-up of the marriage, the home-maker should continue to receive monetary support from the other party, as they (often) have no viable other professional skills. This needs to be enforceable in court in the interest of people whose profession is home-maker.

This is also why gay marriage (and gay divorce) should be legally codified like straight marriage is. People need legal recourse to persist their own standards of living.

If someone entering into a marriage does not want to take on the lifetime of responsibility of providing for the person who is promising to take on the role of home-maker in their household, perhaps they shouldn't enter into a marriage.

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#44

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 2:54 AM UTC

xenophanes wrote: post #33

petercooper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychic or just being a perceptive partner in a long term relationship heading toward a life-long commitment. People can change over time in ways you wouldn't anticipate, but if you marry someone only once you know them deeply (and if you don't, you deserve what you get), you should be reasonably confident of what sort of person they are or could become.

I don't think blaming Elon Musk for not being a perceptive guy makes sense. If it's too hard for someone smart like him to be sufficiently perceptive to avoid this problem, then it's a huge risk for almost everyone.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#45

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 2:54 AM UTC

d0m wrote: post #38

Please don't flame me, but that's the kind of post doesn't really interest me on hacker news. (There are really few of them thought). If all news were like this, I would stop using HN.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#46

Post by mcantor » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 2:58 AM UTC

faramarz wrote: post #8

wmf wrote: post #3

Dupe: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1498914 Curiously, neither site says where this comes from.

What do you mean? The Huffington post is written by Musk himself.

The Huffington Post post?

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#47

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 2:58 AM UTC

dschobel wrote: post #41

lionhearted wrote: post #18

> What caught me by surprise, and forced me to seek emergency loans from friends, were the enormous legal fees I had to pay my ex-wife's divorce lawyers. In a California divorce, the wealthier spouse must pay both sides of the battle even if they are not the aggressor. > The legal and accounting bills for the divorce total four million dollars so far, which is an average of roughly $170,000 per month for the past 24…

How is it a racket if he entered into the marriage contract of his own volition? It may be a rigged game but he played it voluntarily.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#48

Post by jmm » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 3:01 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #45

d0m wrote: post #38

Please don't flame me, but that's the kind of post doesn't really interest me on hacker news. (There are really few of them thought). If all news were like this, I would stop using HN.

[deleted]

Oh, come on. Elon is one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs of our generation and it /is/ news that he's been run through the wringer by Justine. This has to be distracting from companies that are aiming to do truly great things... solar energy, electric cars, privatized space flight. So I'm OK with a little solidarity here, and allowing him to clear his name before a pretty appropriate audience, given the technologies he's involved in and has been involved in.

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#49

Post by thaumaturgy » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 3:03 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #45

d0m wrote: post #38

Please don't flame me, but that's the kind of post doesn't really interest me on hacker news. (There are really few of them thought). If all news were like this, I would stop using HN.

[deleted]

No disrespect intended -- I don't entirely disagree with you -- but:

> Nothing that makes me a better programmer...

Practice.

> ...nothing that makes me a better entrepreneur...

Tenacity.

> ...something that satisfies my intellectual curiosity...

Books.

HN is simply not the very best source for any of those things you listed. I don't think reading any amount of blogs will improve your programming ability or entrepreneurship as much as simply practicing, or (maybe) reading a good ol' fashioned book on the subject.

Re: Elon Musk: Correcting the Record About My Divorce

#50

Post by ajj » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 3:03 AM UTC

commanda wrote: post #43

pohl wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can we do? Abandon the institution of marriage entirely. Nuke it from orbit, as it were. It's the only way to be sure. The legal end of it is a mere wealth-redistribution mechanism. The social end of it is made of community who loves to witness people getting into marriages, but they scatter during the demise. So what function does it perform? From my perspective, it only serves to weaken commitment by trying to…

Actually, yes. Many marriages are entered into by two parties with the agreement that one party will be the primary caretaker of the children (home-maker), which is a profession that is unpaid. The other party will work outside the home and provide money for the family. In that case, the years of work that the home-maker has put in should be recognized as valid work, and in the event of a break-up of the marriage, th…

Agree completely.

The question (probably similar to patents,) is: How can we protect the spirit of why this law is in place (to recognize the contribution of those who may not be directly compensated and give them their appropriate share), without letting people completely exploit and abuse it.

Looked at it that way, its an extremely hard problem with a myriad of economic and social issues along with a bunch of vested interests. Sigh...