Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although not explicitly stated, there seems to be an underlying implication that "[extracting] money from American taxpayers" is somehow illegitimate or dishonorable. What's wrong with getting money from the government, as long as the goods/services were delivered as promised and there was no corruption involved? The government wanted to promote electric vehicles, and teslas are legitimately good cars. The government…
The only way in which it’s an issue is Musk being a libertarian opposed to government spending. He has repeatedly spoken against spending. He strongly opposes the infrastructure bill. I haven’t checked but the infra bill has an EV section and I suspect Tesla will get infra money. Presumably he believes using taxpayer money to build his own companies is the good kind of capital allocation, but it’s facetious to speak…
1. if this was reversed, wouldn't we expect to see headlines along the lines of "Musk spent millions on lobbying for spending bill that will bring in billions for his companies"? Seems like he's going to get flak either way
2. I don't see the contradiction between advocating against a given policy, but still taking full advantage of it when it passes. Suppose you're against a tax cut bill, but it passes anyways. Are you going to forgo the tax cut and give the extra money to the government?