Will Elon unite us?

No - I want people to line up and start dancing to BSIM as we follow Elon

I’d rather dance to Rocke Man by Elon John, but I know it’s gonna be a long long time before that happens

Elon is a weird dude, but I like him, even if I don’t agree with a lot of the stuff that he says. Seems like a lot of liberals don’t like him and I don’t completely get it. He recognizes the importance of reducing carbon emissions and was instrumental in the first all electric car that performs better than most gas powered cars. He then made the designs open to the public so that other car companies could use what Tesla had done to hopefully help them to get to a similar place with developing their own. In my mind, he’s done a lot more for climate change and carbon emissions than almost everyone who thinks that they get credit for just talking about climate change. I think about Leo DiCaprio flying friends on a private jet to speak about climate change. Oh, the irony. So idk, he’s not perfect, as there is no human on this earth that is, but I think it’s wild that a lot of people seem to really hate him, e.g. The cast of SNL having heart attacks he was going to be on the show and demanding “safe spaces” to deal with him being on.

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I didn’t know this at all.
I assumed liberals like him because he’s a tech guy from CA.
I certainly vibe with his quirky energy. Seems like to cool dude to hang out with.

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I do too. I like uniqueness and he certainly has some unique quirks.

Being a billionaire, anti-union, and spreading covid misinformation burned a lot of good will he had from climate change.

Plus all the other shitty things he’s done.

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A shame we vilify people for simply having been successful. It’s not like he inherited it…

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It’s easy to hate rich people when you’re poor. And there are a lot of poor people. So I get it.

i don’t look up to him like i do bill gates and warren buffet. Wouldn’t be surprised if he suddenly had a massive meltdown like hughs

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Most of my friend group is liberal, pretty sure their opinions would range from “weird but fine” to “dislike”. Not on the level of Bezos hate but on the whole at least, not positive.

all my friends are liberal, but there’s a huge difference between poor liberals and rich liberals, and I know people from both cohorts (homeless/jobless to millionaires).

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There is definitely some cognitive dissonance with Elon because I always loved him but he’s definitely done a lot lately to help himself at the expense of others. Still a net positive for society if you ask me.

It’s easy to worship rich people when you’re poor. And there are a lot of poor people. So I get it.

I expect no such thing. It is quite clear there are two sets of laws. The Rule of Law for the noninfluential and the rule of power for the influential. Reach a certain level of power and/or influence and the laws don’t apply. It is not too big to fail, it is too big to punish.

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I think middle class worship rich people for sure. Poor people, I haven’t seen many.

just thought of the perfect moniker for elon:

the billionaire clown

For me it is not sufficiently sharing the wealth with his employees without which there would be no wealth.

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/elon-musks-compensation-is-40000-times-more-than-average-tesla-worker/

Also the company could do with spending more on health and safety and less on Musk (i doubt anything has changed since this article)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2019/03/01/tesla-safety-violations-dwarf-big-us-auto-plants-in-aftermath-of-musks-model-3-push/

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The ratio of CEO pay to average worker is always silly, of course it’s going to be extreme when your rank and file is something very basic.

And they’re not slaves right? He’s meant to altruistically give people money rather than pay them based on the labor market (i.e. the amount the workers agree to work for)? If he did that early on then he would have never been very successful and thus only been able to have very few workers.

Ratio of CEO pay to average worker is now always silly but used to be much less than it is now. It is a systemic problem where CEOs get paid far more than they deserve. However, if Musk was the person some people portray him as, he would do something about it in his sphere of influence. He never was that person, so he doesn’t.

You say he pays the market rate but there is evidence that he pays less than many others. Less than Ford for instance.

You skipped the health and safety bit. I suspect that he thinks that the company will pay less in fines and compensation than they would if they fixed the issues. Again not unusual for many people in his position but jars with the version of him that many would have us believe.

The whole spat with the diver was more Trump like than anything else.

Who decides what “they deserve” (I posit it’s supply and demand, and thus what he is being paid is fair)? Are you suggesting the shareholders of Telsa are altruistically overpaying him? The less they pay the CEO the more they retain in dividends. And in fact if you’re vilifying him for wealth it certainly didn’t come from CEO income, it came from him being a large shareholder.

The labor market is insanely tight. Sounds like a good time for them to switch jobs, no? This is all voluntary so notions that things are “unfair” are ridiculous. Again, supply and demand. If they’re all doing these things voluntarily then it is certainly fair.

I certainly agree that OSHA regulations should be reasonable and the fines for not complying sufficiently onerous so if he flakes on that then I completely agree we should have teeth to those regulations.