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Comment by netsec_burn | Hacker News Reader

Because we all want Tesla to succeed. It's competition in an industry that needs what Tesla is trying to bring to market. It will also greatly benefit the American economy to be the first to mass produce inexpensive electric cars.

So personally, I read comments like yours and wonder who you are and why you feel it is necessary to be critical of that motive.

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I want the electric car transition to succeed, but if Tesla's becoming a bad actor in their quest to be the biggest winner, than I don't think that's helpful for the overall effort anymore.

> if Tesla's becoming a bad actor in their quest to be the biggest winner, than I don't think that's helpful

It's still super helpful. We need to advance our tech at all costs. It's the only thing we have on this continent. We've gifted foreign nations with our manufacturing industries and gutted the American middle class, and the entrails have been used to lift 250,000 people a day out of poverty since 1990. This is a serious gift and a serious tragedy at the same time.

Now there is nothing good about herniated disks from 16 hours of holding your arms over your head every day. I am not defending that. But you have to put it in perspective. Things are so damn good all the frigging time in America and Canada, _relatively speaking_, that we look at herniated disks from hard work like it's some great tragedy that should net each suffering worker $400,000 and a couple years off. But if you lived in China you'd be faced with taking zero dollars, or going to prison for complaining, or getting caught in one of the suicide nets on the sides of Foxconn.

So what's it going to be, guy? Are we going to stifle our tech because we aren't willing to break eggs to make an omelette? Or are we going to let go of our hatred for the tall poppy and let him do his job?

Let me finish by saying that Elon Musk inspired me to move to the big city and get a comp sci education 3 years ago, at this point I am now an intermediate-level dev with great prospects and without Elon Musk striking inspiration and courage in my heart I would be much more bitter and resentful and lame than I am now. So I will defend him to the end of the Earth for setting such a shining and glorious example for me to follow.

The comparison to China is whataboutism and/or a false equivalence. Chinese work practices and available legal recourse might be worse than what Americans have today, but that doesn’t mean Americans have to sacrifice their quality of life to remain competitive. The application of “breaking a few eggs to make an omelette” to workplace injuries is also insensitive at best: what if a family member or friend in your life suffered the same? Would that individual be a “broken egg” for someone else’s potential “omelette” in your opinion?

We might not be able to stop all workplace injuries, and I totally agree that Elon Musk has accomplished a lot in his all of his ventures to date; however, if Musk’s path to future success requires further harm towards his customers and/or his employees, then I’d rather wait for someone else to accomplish the same without any lives being in jeopardy.

> We need to advance our tech at all costs.

If this is he primary directive, then what kind of business practices wouldn't be justified?

It's important to look at everything with a critical lens, especially the stuff you support. Tesla is deeply flawed, and in order for it to succeed, it needs to overcome those flaws.

OK, so how do we (outsiders) productively discuss Tesla's "flaws" without spending all of our time engaging in arm-chair quarterbacking based on rumors, many of which turn out to be incorrect or incomplete?

I, for one, feel it is necessary to be critical of the means of achieving that, namely, by treating your workers like Musk apparently does.

so what you're saying is that selective information > all information. an ends justify the means, of sorts - a very myopic, startup-like mentality, IMO; Boz would be proud [1].

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/29/17178086/facebook-growth-...

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