"Alameda declares Telsa an 'essential business,' factory allowed to operate under cornavirus orders"
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Alameda-declared-Telsa-a...
I hope someone follows the money and prosecutes Elon if he exercised any financial influence here.
Taking this one step further, auto repair businesses can't very well repair cars if there are no parts available, and those parts come from Fremont. Therefore, the Tesla factory would (at least in part) theoretically already qualify for an exemption under the existing order.
One could also make the argument that (given that private transportation has been deemed an "essential" service) replacing worn out or destroyed cars is essential, and thus manufacturing finished cars qualifies for an exemption.
The factory that makes hydraulic fluid for Tesla's presses that stamp out car parts is also part of the transportation supply chain, As is the oil refinery that supplies feedstock to the hydraulic oil vendor.
(Just to be clear, I'm not defending Tesla here. They have the choice to shutdown regardless of government order or exemptions)
If the largest business in the area was producing nail varnish, you might find that "beauticians are staying open too based upon the same exemption" - it would still be special treament because neither of them should be open.
I honestly think the thing we will learn from this pandemic is that we can't stop a modern economy like this for a couple months without also incurring significant loss of life. If this shutdown extends more than a month we're going to see supplies start to run low and people will panic. Grocery stores around me (large northeastern city) are already having trouble restocking.
At the same time, I hope Tesla is going as far as they can to protect their workers... and that will probably be the real story at the end of all of this, "What companies did to protect their workers and the economy around them."
We're heading into the next great depression, and it's going to take a New Deal type of effort to recover. Trump is actually in a remarkably similar position to Hoover in all this too; so it's not unprecedented to be headed into something like this with a nincompoop at the helm.
We need to "Flatten the curve" enough to spread out critical care capacity surges without over-achieving to the extent we cause even more harm long-term to the world's poorest populations. We need a constant gradual rate of CV19 spread. If we "full stop" CV19's spread now, when social distancing and lockdowns lift, we'll be facing Wuhan/Italy surges again.
Yes, I believe that is rather the point of the exemptions laid out in the order. The health commissioner is trying to prevent infections of Covid-19, not destroy the economy.
Tell me how you feel about drycleaners. They are also explicitly exempted as businesses providing essential services.
Actually, now that I think about it, you're right: It is more important to have a crisply-pressed suit than transportation to the grocery store for food. Grab the pitchforks, let's get Elon!
And I suspect their other products (power wall), etc, are more upper middle class, unless there are new apartment communities using it.
Because it's not like a restaurant that you can close and then open a month later with little consequence to the public. If you stop production of components or cars, you will not have them later on to restart the economy.
Most of the world uses lean manufacturing. Closing down some factories will mean that entire production chains will shut down. All the companies that service those chains will shut down. And when the virus passes, you will have no cars, no components for cars, and no easy way to restart manufacturing.
Even without shutdowns the entire system will take a huge hit dues to changes in demand. (Which will drop to nothing for some thing and skyrocket for others.)
That hits a nerve. A lot of restaurants are going to close and never reopen again as a result of this lockdown.
In Europe, losing your job does not mean losing your health nor your finances.
It does if you're freelance, which a lot of the events industry is. Or if you work for a small business that folds as soon as it has no business.
Electric cars are fungible, social fabric is not.
So we can lose Tesla and be fine with remaining electric car manufacturers or new ones. In contrast, losing a long-term social hub is a lasting negative impact.
[0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-results-2019/v...
From cold calculus it might be worth risking a few more lives to keep the concern going.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life
Scroll down for a country-by-country breakdown.
I personally don't pass judgement on it.
TBH, I'm more worried about what will happen with Ford or GM if they have even a short outage. GM has massive ongoing obligations and a relatively weak balance sheet, afaik.
This applies just as much to anything food-related (grocery or restaurant); maybe moreso because most of what a restaurant needs (or farm/ranch/fishery could produce) is not as shelf-stable as most car parts.
Interesting. VW, Daimler, Lamborghini, Ferrari, FCA, PSA all are stopping production.
Easy answer if you're Musk: just pay them to stay home.
Shutting cities down is not going to make coronavirus go away — it is a last ditch effort of a failed nation that let its health infrastructure rot.
Everywhere else we are taking sensible personal precautions, and retraining people for the six month fight ahead: social distancing, self-isolation, far more attention to hygiene. We can do that because our health care systems and pandemic response capabilities weren’t vandalised by vested interests.
Pretty much a certainty given politics in the US.
corroborated here
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tesla-...