Elon Musk Gives Tearful Interview about Overworking Himself and Ambien Use - Sensationalist Headlines

His employees don't have 120 hour work weeks and don't spend 4 days at the factory, and sure he could cashout but if he did Tesla would die. Then all his work and all his employees work would be down the drain. He could fly off on vacations constantly, he certainly has the money and the power to do so. Average Fremont factory production line worker does 43 hours per week on 8 hour shifts afaik. Ford factories have 10 hour shifts but no one gives a shit about them. The Model 3 is essentially make or break for Tesla, and it seems like Musk has lead the company to succes with it. You can hate on him if you want to, but obviously he's doing something right since Tesla is the closest a new US car manufacturer has got to becoming successful in 100 years. Even if he did delegate and take a month long vacation I'm quite sure the shorts would be pumping out articles about it. "Tesla CEO takes vacation during companies make or break period".

This same line of argument could be used to justify anything, from slavery to environmental destruction.

Being a billionaire is a problem. Under the current economic system having literally billions of dollars is functionally just mindlessly hoarding wealth. It's detracting from others with no benefit to yourself since £10bil and £100bil are both god mode money states anyway, that £90bil should be going to make the world better. Bill Gates understands this problem and tries to meaningfully distribute his wealth. Meanwhile Elon Musk's version of redistributing his pointless billions is dicking around with metal death tubes, calling heroes pedos, and saying he's going to solve the flint water crisis and then going actually nah. So yeah, I hate billionaires, not because wah wah I barely make more than minimum wage, but because billionaires shouldn't exist and are the worst case scenario in a world full of pointless inequality.

That's not how wealth works. Billionaire doesn't mean they have a billion dollars. Elon Musk doesn't have 20 billion dollars sitting around. It means he owns things that combined are worth 20 billion dollars. He can't do anything with that unless he sells his ownership in Tesla and SpaceX and whatever else he owns. He's a billionaire because he's good at what he does. You hate him because he is a good entrepreneur and you don't understand wealth. If Elon liquidated his assets in Tesla and SpaceX to turn his wealth into money, then the stock price would plummet because, well Elon Musk sold out which means the company must be going to shit. If the stock price goes to shit, all Tesla employees lose a sizable nestegg because all Tesla employees are given stock option meaning they own a tiny tiny percent of the company.

Seriously? That's the level of debate we're having here now, and from a mod too?

Being a billionaire is not a problem. It's at best the symptom of a problem, but not even taking into account the reasons for wealth is extremely reductive. Given a set of circumstances, maximizing your net worth is a rational decision. The problem is a system that isn't working. Maybe redirect your anger towards that?

I'm conflicted on this issue. I think the fact that so many billionaires do nothing to help humanity as a whole is troubling, particularly in respect to somebody like Jeff Bezos, but I do think Musk's wealth has shown that we can have filthy rich people who are visionaries and try something revolutionary, even with risks. Starting a rocket company was going to be done by somebody at some point, but the fact that Musk has obliterated the competition with his extremely cheap launches due to re-usability means I will always have a lot of respect for him. However, I think what Rossy is trying to say is that most billionaires do not use their wealth to help humanity and simply use it to acquire more wealth, a bit like a drug. Bill Gates is the only billionaire I know of with significant philanthropic aspiration, but Musk is at least not doing evil stuff like hiking prices of EpiPens, etc.

Elon Musk isnt going to fuck you bro

I agree. It is troubling. I would even concede that hiking prices and other detrimental practices warrant hatred. But finding a guy like Elon Musk (or Jeff Bezos) and painting them to be symbols of a corrupt system is unproductive. I also don't expect anyone of any level of wealth to act in the interest of others (even if I feel we're going towards more of that today with effective altruism, giving pledges, social entrepreneurship).

You took @OvB s snippet out of context to be annoyed by it. It makes perfect sense considering what he's replying to. Musk certainly does make mistakes. Though the union thing is more of a UAW issue than a general union thing. Not really sure how Tesla could support UAW considering they are anti-EV, have been found guilty in corruption probes, and have little to gain from Tesla's success.

It's a problem that is a symptom of a larger problem. And I am directing my anger at the broken system that leads to a 1% hording most of the world's wealth from the other 99% leading to widespread poverty. Maximizing your network is rational to an extent, my economics teacher always used to use examples of billionaires or millionaires who prioritized wealth accumulation after a certain point as markets being irrational. £1 million to me is an insane amount of money, enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life if I'm smart. But when you're valued at £150 million, what the hell is another £1 million? Surely it's less valuable than doing charity work or spending time with your family?

Indeed there are plenty of good examples of billionaires and millionaires squandering their wealth and potential. People who've inherited it and don't put it to work, people who don't invest their earnings at all, a certain reality TV family. There are people who don't give a shit. And that's not good. But there are also a lot who understand their wealth comes with responsibility and they start foundations or pledges to philanthropy. A good example would be some sports stars or musicians who came from humble beginnings and invest their newfound wealth in their hometown. Or people who started a company in their garage and became a huge success. Elon is one of those types. He's even pledged in the Giving Pledge. (And he privately donates to things he believes in) https://givingpledge.org I don't think there's anything systemically wrong with having very wealthy people as long as the other end is taken care of. I'm all for social programs like UBI, and universal healthcare and education. But I don't think we need to tear down the wealthy to do that. I'd say in the US it's probably achievable with an overhaul of government funding from things like defense, and putting restrictions on big money "donations" to politicians. Higher taxes on the rich are fine but that's not going to stop people from getting billion dollar valuations at their data-harvesting social media apps IPO.

Why can't perfectly healthy economies have rich individuals? Why do they have to be problems? Because I agree that the bastardization called capitalism in the United States is fucking apocalyptic. But it is also an outlier? The world is better now than it was? So your point is that we should blame wealth-accumulating millionaires/billionaires for irrational markets? It sounds to me like you want to condemn a few termites for the way a termite mound turned out. I can't decide what amount is a lot of money. I could probably argue that there should be a high tax rate for people that rich. But can I really argue that someone's had enough? Should wealth/work really be capped? (I don't think so.)

True, yet using it in this circumstance is not the same as using it in those circumstances. Face it. I'm correct. Tesla, a company heavily in debt, cannot simply magic money out of thin air to pay masses of people to suddenly take on the work- evidenced by their current layoffs. The workers there can either work hard to keep their jobs or they can be allowed to slack off but lose them when the company goes on (based on it not supplying the vehicles people have repeatedly paid deposits for). Elon Musk is doing the thing anyone else would in the circumstances: he is working as hard as his workers to make the place a success. Sure you can moan that it's not fair that his workers work as hard as him and, well, it isn't, but if you dislike that fact then you don't have a problem with me, nor him, you have a problem with the modern capitalist system.

you have a problem with the modern capitalist system Yes.

first and the last time I did ambien I thought it didn't do shit and I just passed out, until my mom said I acted like a cat when he saw me