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Comment by gg-plz | Hacker News Reader

SpaceX is not a neutral party. They’re flush with cash from US government contracts. If they want to withdraw their infrastructure from America’s ally, who are defending themselves against an existential threat from one of America’s top geopolitical adversaries, why should they continue to be granted American government contracts?

If Elon wants to be independent, he can be independent. He doesn’t. His companies all depend on government subsidies to exist. Tesla, SolarCity, SpaceX — these are not free market capitalist successes, they’re all fundamentally dependent on Big Government. Without government charity, Elon Musk has nothing.

If Elon really wants to bite the hand that feeds him, he’d better be ready to get smacked.

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Tesla received a lot of govt investment early on, but aren't they making boatloads of money now? The clean car credits they get from other manufacturers are a small fraction of their revenue.

The other companies in don't know about.

Tesla early on didn't receive lots of govt investment early on. The got a loan for 400 million $ and that money started to come in around 2012 or so, and that money was paid back a few years later. And Tesla competitors got much bigger loans that they have not yet paid back.

And after that their costumers got tax reductions for buying EVs, but that could be used by all car companies. This is not investment.

They get clean energy credits from other car companies, based on emissions regulation. Again, not investment from the government, rather a mechanism for the government to implement emissions improvements on the industry as a whole.

Tesla also received tax reductions for their large industrial installations, but that is something all companies get when they to large scale investments. Its simply how things are done in the US (and many other places).

Somebody doing their homework before posting Tesla comments. Commendable!

Not really, since my comment wasn’t talking about investments. It’s easy to sound smart when you change the subject.

I think the comment is a perfectly relevant and accurate response to those wholesale assertions you made.

> His companies all depend on government subsidies to exist. Tesla, SolarCity, SpaceX — these are not free market capitalist successes, they’re all fundamentally dependent on Big Government.

US government is not actually allied to the Ukraine as far as I know.

And not allowing your consumer electronics devices and sat systems to be used as offensive weapons (something the system wasn't designed for) is pretty reasonable for any company to do. One can have different feeling about this, but the idea that the US military would blacklist SpaceX over this is not really reasonable.

> Without government charity, Elon Musk has nothing.

This is often claimed but if you actually look into it it isn't actually true for Tesla.

SpaceX might have gone bust without NASA contracts but those were difficult high risk contracts that required performance based milestones to actually receive money. They were certainty not charity. In fact, SpaceX almost certainty lost money on those early contracts like CRS.

The reality is those companies had to compete against competitors who had way more support form government.

Are you being paid to do this?

Yes. Its actually well paid.

Just go to

becomingapaidshillforputin.ru

They're all out of hats now :(

Ukraine is not an American ally.

This is pedantic hairsplitting. US is gifting weapons to Ukraine, and sanctioning Russia on Ukraine's behalf.

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