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With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

paulkrugman.substack.com

31–40 of 99 posts

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#31
post #7

If you listen to Elon speak, and you don't have much technical knowledge, or even maybe have some mild technical knowledge, Elon really sounds like he knows what he is doing and has very high confidence he can execute it. He can very non-nonchalantly rattle off a plan to pull off the impossible like it's no big deal. And he does have some significant achievements under his belt, but quite a bit easier things than wha…

> Elon really sounds like he knows what he is doing and has very high confidence he can execute it

In 2015, Elon Musk on Hyperloop: "it's no that hard", "it's like a tube with an air hockey table...", "I swear, it's not that hard" [1] Eventually, it was hard. You can literally go on and on with these examples.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQcfi8HK1i8

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#32

[flagged]

China electrified the auto industry [1] [2] [3], not Tesla (mostly BYD). SpaceX is appreciated for proving that reusable vehicles are possible, which other nation states are building [4]. Musk is the management huckster who slaps his name on it, sells it, and reaps the benefits as opposed to the person grinding creating the actual results and innovation. "It is what it is." [1] https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car…

This is conveniently forgetting that China used Tesla as a template on how to build out its electric car companies, as it is now using SpaceX as a template to get reusable rockets going...

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#33
A wonderfully written article. I think Musk is simply a singular example of how the broligarchy has managed to overwhelmingly influence the very fabric of political and economic institutions: he's not the only one and certainly not the originator.

I wonder if the underlying principle of Ponzi schemes have been wielded in western democracies a lot more than most realise, amplifying (through greed rather than direct maliciousness) wealth disparities that have been growing since long before Musk started Paypal. The sad point isn't that this mentality exists, but that many who can ill afford such an atrocious investment don't have the opportunity to do much about it: how many people really can do much about where their low-grade investments are really placed?

It says more about the state of transparency in economies and politics in the 21st century than it does about the man himself. Symptom of the system is what I think Musk and Trump really are.

Kudos to the author, really thought provoking.

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#34
The SpaceX IPO prospectus states that the company is targeting a TAM of $28.5T, equal to roughly a quarter of the world's gross economic output.

Patrick Boyle said it best. Roughly 1 billion people on the planet make more than $12k annually (folks with "discretionary" income). Divide that TAM of $28.5T by 1B and the every single person needs to give SpaceX ~$28.5K every year forever in order for that figure to make sense. It's more than 3x what the planet spends on food currently.

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#36
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China electrified the auto industry [1] [2] [3], not Tesla (mostly BYD). SpaceX is appreciated for proving that reusable vehicles are possible, which other nation states are building [4]. Musk is the management huckster who slaps his name on it, sells it, and reaps the benefits as opposed to the person grinding creating the actual results and innovation. "It is what it is." [1] https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car…

This is conveniently forgetting that China used Tesla as a template on how to build out its electric car companies, as it is now using SpaceX as a template to get reusable rockets going...

[deleted]

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#37
post #22
post #7

If you listen to Elon speak, and you don't have much technical knowledge, or even maybe have some mild technical knowledge, Elon really sounds like he knows what he is doing and has very high confidence he can execute it. He can very non-nonchalantly rattle off a plan to pull off the impossible like it's no big deal. And he does have some significant achievements under his belt, but quite a bit easier things than wha…

It's funny he's only able to do that because he has so little real technical understanding. A real engineer wouldn't be so flippant.

> [Elon] has so little real technical understanding

This is a common trope, it's been dismantled many times previously https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33555870

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason he has money is because he built products and services that people willingly exchanged their money for.

Such a boring statement. Many people have built products used by far more people, that have generated far more utility, and accumulated far less personal wealth. These things aren't connected.

It's possible that the first sentence is true. Open source software comes to mind. However, that doesn't undermine the point that the reason he has money is because he built things other people wanted to buy. The fact that other people chose to forgo monetary rewards for their creations, or gave away their money, is not relevant to the question of whether he provided value to others.

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#39
post #21

He revolutionized car and rocket industry , internet industry , military industry in a very dramatic obvious way. Now grab let’s say Amazon what did they revolutionize? Yeah they do deliver to you goods from China and help you to tend hardware with some decent soft on it . You can twist it both ways. He has a bravery to take on super complex tasks. You might not like him personally but this is so much aspiring vs see…

You can type in whatever sequence of keys you want, but Amazon preety much created and shaped that Cloud thing, if you ever heard of it. And that's just one of their side-projects.

There are better ways to stand for my man Elon.

Re: With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by his net worth he hasn’t done anything for us, he did it all for himself

How do you figure? Trying to understand and hoping you can walk through your logic

Not an native english speaker, but someone "doing something for me" is not (me buying products and services from that someone|selling products and services to me).
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