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Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

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Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#61
post #57

Elon uses four personal jets guzzling who knows now much gas. He practically flies 24x7. When it comes to climate, he is a hypocrite.

Elon has done more for climate activism and the green movement in the last decade than basically anybody. Besides perhaps Miss Thunberg. His "guzzling" jets as you call them are a minor convenience in order to facilitate quicker, more efficient transport to enable the evolution and development of Tesla and SpaceX. Do you expect him to drive everywhere? Not only would that be worse for the environment, but it would me…

I expect him to video conference, not fly 150,000 miles/take 250 flights a year—nor fly his jet from one LA airport to another LA airport to shorten his chauffeured ride home. I expect him to buy carbon offset credits. I expect him to not publicly trash public transportation. I expect him to not donate to climate change denying politicians, and I expect him to not sell emissions credits to polluting automakers, delaying their transition to ZEVs, and sneakily undoing all of the environments benefits from buying a Tesla car. I expect the Tesla paint shop from repeatedly violating California emissions regulations. I expect Musk to not spread coronavirus disinformation over Twitter. I expect him to not expose his workers to undue risk by violating Alemeda County’s restrictions on non-essential businesses.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#62
post #51
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah. I've been on about that for years. If extreme wealth or political power were a meritocracy most billionaires and high-ranking political officials would be similarly productive and competent and he'd be average for his socioeconomic class. There should be hundreds and hundreds of Elon Musks at least.

> There should be hundreds and hundreds of Elon Musks at least. I'm not sure I agree. I like Elon Musk (a whole lot more than most people) - but every Elon Musk consumes a lot of societies resources. He's spending 10s or 100s of billions of dollars worth of resource on (literal) moonshots. A hundred of him would raise that to trillions to 10s of trillions of dollars. I think we can afford the former as a society (and…

I think you are underestimating how much we waste. The resources are consumed regardless.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#63
post #51
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah. I've been on about that for years. If extreme wealth or political power were a meritocracy most billionaires and high-ranking political officials would be similarly productive and competent and he'd be average for his socioeconomic class. There should be hundreds and hundreds of Elon Musks at least.

> There should be hundreds and hundreds of Elon Musks at least. I'm not sure I agree. I like Elon Musk (a whole lot more than most people) - but every Elon Musk consumes a lot of societies resources. He's spending 10s or 100s of billions of dollars worth of resource on (literal) moonshots. A hundred of him would raise that to trillions to 10s of trillions of dollars. I think we can afford the former as a society (and…

Maybe it is the other way around; we can't afford _not_ to spend 10s of trillions on moonshots. Depends on how sustainable one thinks the status quo is, and the risk timeframe for potential consequenses.

Re: Elon Musk, Tech’s Cash-Poor Billionaire

#64
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There should be hundreds and hundreds of Elon Musks at least. I'm not sure I agree. I like Elon Musk (a whole lot more than most people) - but every Elon Musk consumes a lot of societies resources. He's spending 10s or 100s of billions of dollars worth of resource on (literal) moonshots. A hundred of him would raise that to trillions to 10s of trillions of dollars. I think we can afford the former as a society (and…

Maybe it is the other way around; we can't afford _not_ to spend 10s of trillions on moonshots. Depends on how sustainable one thinks the status quo is, and the risk timeframe for potential consequenses.

It also depends on how much you think you increase the risk by disrupting the status quo, and how much you think extracting 10s of trillions would disrupt the status quo.
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