Musk acquired his money through voluntary exchanges with buyers freely and willingly engaging in market transactions.
The government uses coercive force to raise taxes, it is not voluntary.
Tax money is public property and we should have a say in how it is spent. Musk's money we gave to him freely and is his to dispose of as he sees fit.
A substantial portion of Elon Musk's company's funding comes from "tax money" (Goverment contracts, EV credits, tax breaks, subsidies). This seems to contradict both of your sentences.
And if you don't believe it's substantial: Tesla's EV credit sales alone were on the order of $500 million this quarter. Why is that not tax money that goes to better projects, instead of the bottom line of a company that has set its CEO up for a $350mm payday? Did the public have a say in that?
How much? Sounds more like a talking point than an actual honest critique.
I mean, oil companies get massive subsidies and we spend trillions to go to war to keep the petroleum industry ascendant.
In times of economic recession, we often blame the government and get rid of them.
We've clearly signaled with our voting patterns what we want and government has delivered on it - a reliable supply of oil to power the economy. But that's not enough we also demand "Big Oil" act as our sin-eater; thus our souls are pure because Shell takes on the stain of our sins.
Currently. But given the externalities, it could be a net negative.
> We've clearly signaled with our voting patterns what we want
I think recent elections and upcoming elections will signal differently. Smart money will make bets accordingly.
In other news, TSLA is +50% in last week, and +100% in the last month. Something happening here.
Have a say in it? Ha. The public CREATED it and drove it. Government are followers of public opinion, not leaders.
There are politicians now who are building their identities and campaigns around green policies like EV credits. This is in response to the expressed desires of the public, it is what wins votes.
However there's no contradiction. What the government spends money on in free market voluntary transactions is absolutely 100% within the purview of the public - right up until the instant the money is spent. After that the money is the property of the market participant who earned it. The public cannot spend the money (through government) and then also try to claw back control of the same money. It was spent, on your behalf certainly, but spent nonetheless.
So that "insulting amount of money on military and defense" is where SpaceX gets it's money.
AFAIK we're (DoD) the only organization actually paying for starlink right now.