04-27-2024, 01:10 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Bermuda
Posts: 2,962
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paredown
It's worth saying that it is easier to be debt-free when you receive critical government subsidies as Tesla did or get critical government contracts as SpaceX did. Elon is a master at finding areas of business where the government is willing to throw in the form of electric car subsidies (and now the desire to share the Tesla charging network) or "public-private partnerships", as NASA was to solve their need for reliable next-gen orbital transport. Meanwhile, Elon has built Starlink, and will be able to sell SpaceX services to private concerns.
As former minion working for a Federal contractor in DC, my worm's eye view is that you have to work very hard to screw up the sluice of money that can flow from government agencies, so long as you don't engage in outright fraud.
This is an article from when Elon was slagging off about NPR as "government" media--but there are numerous older articles detailing exactly how much he has relied on government funding, direct and indirect:
https://qz.com/elon-musks-spacex-and...mon-1850332884 |
Rent seeking is a skill.
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