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Comment by heavyset_go | Hacker News Reader

It's Tesla's shareholders that got there, we, as a people, didn't.

Leave money out of it for a moment and recognize that this is a monumental step toward cessation of use of fossil fuels by humankind. I cheer for ITER with the same fervor.

Nobody else gave a shit about EVs until Tesla did it on a large scale. I don't own a single share of TSLA or one of their vehicles (yet) and I am happy for this and will benefit from it, because I am a human living on Earth.

Don't be a hater.

It's not even that. It's the fact that something like this exists, has been invented, all of it.

This has nothing to do with the claim that we, as a people, got somewhere with this factory, when it is the shareholders that own and control the IP that made it possible, along with the physical machinery. It's not a public service that we, as a people, are responsible for in that sense.

One needs to give the governments that gave incentives, subsidies, and related such things to Tesla a bit of credit too.

I think that's being a little unfair. Tesla's factory isn't particularly special, it's like every other car plant out there. They're building on centuries of industrial development. Heck, the biggest 'cool toy' in the Tesla factory is made by an Italian company. So 'we' did get to this level if industrial capability.

I would have made a similar comment if the same claim was made about another car company's factory. That biggest machine is also likely the IP of the Italian company's shareholders, as well.

Its an Italian company that design and built the machine special on Tesla request for Tesla specification. The machine was quite a bit larger then other machines they had done before. It was first installed in the US and produced cars for export and the domestic market.

Its not like Tesla went down to the local market and picked up a few toys and put a factory together.

By your standard no company in history would be 'particularly special'.

It's an impressive thing they have built. Everyone involved should be commended for their hard work and achievements.

However, Tesla and all of its operations, including the factory in the video, is part of a broader context. They don't exist in a vacuum. None of this would have happened without that broader context.

What about all the people employed by Tesla and all the people who are buying Tesla cars? And the planet benefits from getting closer to sustainable transport.

We, as a people, are not just those who can afford to participate in the luxury car market.

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