“We” includes everyone but his investors, that is. For many of us the man typifies arrogance, smugness and swagger. One would think the world’s richest person (at $826 billion and counting) could afford some humility. But with all that money and power, Elon manages to generally behave like a yahoo. He is a very mixed bag of characteristics and has done some good works. I’ll give him credit for that. He’s still a yahoo.
His personal flaws have been on display for years. Elon has at least fourteen children and he gives them goofy names, like Techno “Tau” Mechanicus. Someone on Quora called him a “sociopath of high intelligence,” and I think that fits. It’s what allied him with Trump, though the latter could hardly be granted high intelligence. The relationship between the two of them devastated the government.
Watch the world’s reaction when the SpaceX IPO hits the Nasdaq next week. It will be the biggest stock market debut ever and could make Elon a trillionaire. I don’t know about you but that makes me sorta sick. Some of that IPO money will go to fund his AI and rocket business. Let’s all go to Mars.
If you really want to know what’s going on at SpaceX, read this piece about Gwynne Shotwell, the power behind the throne. Here are some excerpts from the article’s commenters.
At most, Democrats would demand that Musk divest from the company. This step would be based on his wildly erratic behavior, drug abuse, strong evidence of security breaches and questionable loyalty to the US, his adoptive country. . . .
Space exploration should not be privatized. As always, when something that used to be done as a public good is privatized, cost goes way up and quality goes way down. NASA has done more for decades, and more cheaply, without puffing the egos of oligarchs and shareholders. And unlike SpaceX and Bezos, NASA can get rockets to launch without blowing up on the pad. . . .
All of Elon’s fantasies have been propped up by our tax dollars for years.
You will of course remember DOGE and Elon’s de facto leadership in firing thousands of public servants, his strutting onstage with the chain saw and, what moved me most, the totally uncalled-for demolition of USAID. And how he and his goons harassed company employees.
But he is a hit with investors in SpaceX: “This guy has a dream, plus he’s a really good man with a great heart and brilliant guy, and he does things for humanity, not just for himself,” [investor Ronald] Baron told Bloomberg. He envisions that the SpaceX businesses will eventually generate trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars a year of revenues.”
We can’t wait.