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Comment by Jach | Hacker News Reader

Are you a Tesla shareholder?

This isn't an opinion/confidence issue, it is a legal one. If there is even one shareholder (i.e. anyone in the world with $228 to spare) who wants to push this issue, they can. Realistically it would take more than that to make it worth suing, but the point remains that even if 98% of shareholders think this is totally okay, it could still be a huge problem for them.

Additionally, there are various institutional shareholders that don't operate based on their personal opinion of Musk/Tesla, but have specific legal duties to protect their investment in the company.

The SEC could still act on the issue even if it was somehow proven than not a single shareholder actually cared.

Do I need to be one for my points to be valid?

Not necessarily, but should-ing on behalf of other people is not often particularly useful unless you're already powerful. In the art of persuasion, it can also weaken your case considerably, in the same ways "I'm an atheist, but it seems like these Christians should really think..." style arguments don't tend to do anything to advance either atheism or "truer-to-Christ's teachings" behavior.

In that case, for the record a major part of my retirement fund is taken up by the Fidelity 500 Index Fund, and 2.34% of that portfolio's position is TSLA stock. So yes, you could say I'm a stockholder.

EDIT:

> should-ing on behalf of other people is not often particularly useful unless you're already powerful.

Solidarity labor strikes, where one union strikes to show support for an unrelated striking union, would be a counter-example to this. As individuals, the striking workers are not powerful, but collectively they can have an effect.

With TSLA in the S&P 500 it's difficult to avoid being a shareholder

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