Hacker News Reader

Comment by iknowstuff | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

Don't underestimate the harm of being a hyper-rich asshole with government friends. It arguably outweighs all that even on pragmatic terms.

Also, the article explicitly answers your sarcasm.

Judging by his net worth he hasn’t done anything for us, he did it all for himself

The reason he has money is because he built products and services that people willingly exchanged their money for.

While true, his wealth is 99% speculative.

Elon has a closed box that he has successfully convinced a lot of people that there is a lot of money inside, and sold them small stakes in the contents, and promised year after year for 10+ years that this will be the year he opens it.

So the people who lament that he is a trillionaire have nothing to worry about then. It is just paper "wealth" that the market will pull back down to earth

Even if his 1T is speculative and undeserved he still has extreme power from that wealth. And there’s no indication that the bottom will fall out any time soon, so I think the lamenting is justified.

Such a boring statement.

Many people have built products used by far more people, that have generated far more utility, and accumulated far less personal wealth. These things aren't connected.

It's possible that the first sentence is true. Open source software comes to mind. However, that doesn't undermine the point that the reason he has money is because he built things other people wanted to buy. The fact that other people chose to forgo monetary rewards for their creations, or gave away their money, is not relevant to the question of whether he provided value to others.

The most dangerous oversimplification facing the human species.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

How do you figure? Trying to understand and hoping you can walk through your logic

Not an native english speaker, but someone "doing something for me" is not (me buying products and services from that someone|selling products and services to me).

So your main observation is that he never gave you anything for free. Okay.

He has created the second most millionaires out of direct employees behind Microsoft. Many, though not all, of those new millionaires have been blue-collar workers (not office workers), unlike the case for Microsoft produced millionaires. So, from that PoV, he's done good for his employees.

> internet available from every place on the globe

I keep hearing this refrain that Starlink is going to connect everyone. LTE already covers 93% of the population globally [1]. There are obviously dead spots but I really don't see the economic case for Starlink coverage. I frequently travel with a mini and I appreciate the near certainty of connection but it seems like a luxury item. The vast majority of the time cell connection is fine. I suppose Starlink could eat all the telcos but it seems like they aren't too far behind and this connectivity will be commoditized.

[1] https://www.itu.int/itu-d/reports/statistics/2025/10/15/ff25...

What have the Romans ever done for us?

Well, he also killed several hundred thousand people (https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-elon-musk-killed-hun...) and started some race riots (https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/06/13/m...), but whatever. Bygones for some quick cash.

China electrified the auto industry [1] [2] [3], not Tesla (mostly BYD). SpaceX is appreciated for proving that reusable vehicles are possible, which other nation states are building [4].

Musk is the management huckster who slaps his name on it, sells it, and reaps the benefits as opposed to the person grinding creating the actual results and innovation. "It is what it is."

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/electric-car-sales

[2] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/china-car-exports-jump-73...

[3] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-byd-overtakes-ford-glo...

[4] https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/another-falcon-9-looka...

This is conveniently forgetting that China used Tesla as a template on how to build out its electric car companies, as it is now using SpaceX as a template to get reusable rockets going...

Actually, there's good evidence that it's the other way around. According to Elon, designing a car factory is 1000X harder than designing a car. According to Elon, the initial model 3 production was a big mess that almost bankrupted the company.

How did they turn this around? By building a car factory in China using local knowledge, then building an duplicate of that factory in Germany, and then building a factory in Texas that incorporated knowledge learned.

sorry bud but you're misinformed and reaching for conclusions

model 3 was successful and profitable long before shanghai started churning out model Ys years later

BYD sells fewer BEVs than Tesla globally. Their large numbers stem from hybrids. They also grew long after Tesla established EVs as a viable market. You're misinformed.

Nissan Leaf should get a lot of credit for establishing that market. Tesla launched first, but for 4 years only had an $100k car that only sold around 2500 units over its lifetime.

Nissan launched the Leaf 3 years after Tesla, but it was the first mass market EV, and in the first year sold around 9000 in the US and 20000 world wide.

Tesla didn't have a somewhat affordable car until the Model S in 2012, although it was still around twice the median price for a new car then.

It took until 2020 for Tesla cumulative sales to surpass Leaf cumulative sales.

Also, everything I'm finding says that in 2025 BYD sold 2.26 million BEVs in 2025 and 2.29 milling PHEVs, which is more BEVs than Tesla sold.

BYD continues to expand faster than Tesla. If you’re focused on anything other than rate of change, you’ve missed the mark. They intend to be the biggest global automaker in five years, and their trajectory to get there is clear.

Tesla isn’t going away, but it isn’t ever going to be a giant in the industry anymore. Their maximum output is ~2M/units/year, which BYD already easily exceeds while continuing to scale. Is Tesla building any more vehicle assembly lines? They are not.

Citations:

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a69905157/tesla-sales-down...

https://www.statista.com/chart/33709/tesla-byd-electric-vehi...

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/byd-ma...

https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/byd-gl...

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-where-tesla-and-byd-...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/10/china-byd-c...

Uh, yeah, but nobody’s talking about the future, but rather whether or not Tesla had a significant impact on electrification of the industry. And the verdict is: yes, they did.

Tesla is in fact finishing assembly lines for cybercabs and tesla semis fyi. No other 500mi BEV semi exists.

TFA acknowledges this. Did you only read the title?

I think it wildly undersells/dismisses actual achievements delivered to form a narrative

You're forgetting all the supervillain stuff.

> I know right! Except for […]

You mean like Krugman recognizes in this paragraph:

> Granted, Musk has had some real successes. Tesla was ahead of the EV curve, and Starlink is a critically important service as well as a viable business.

Krugman's hypothesis is in the very next paragraph:

> But these achievements weren’t enough to make Musk the world’s richest man. His wealth has, instead, historically rested mainly on self-fulfilling faith — investors believing in Musk’s genius have piled into stocks in Musk-controlled companies, and the rising value of these companies has enhanced his reputation for genius.

followed by:

> We have a term for enterprises that look successful because they keep drawing in new investors and keep drawing in new investors because they look successful. They’re called Ponzi schemes. And Elon Musk is basically a human Ponzi scheme.

> Furthermore, the SpaceX IPO now in progress makes it clearer than ever that Musk’s greatest skill isn’t developing futuristic products. It’s his mastery of financial shell games and his ability to leverage insider influence, especially his influence with the Trump administration.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com