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Comment by kenrikm | Hacker News Reader

Elon made enough off PayPal to never have to work.. ever again . Instead he put all of his money into Electric cars, solar power and rockets with a huge chance that he would loose it all (and almost did). I don't think that profit is his motivating factor.

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I seriously don't understand people that get mad when someone makes a profit. Like are those people expecting to work and earn nothing? When you risk your capital, should you not get a return? And when you risk it on something crazy like electric cars, shouldn't the profits be even that much larger, to compensate you for the out of proportion risk?

No one's getting mad about profit making, the point being made is that when profit-making is the motive, it is disingenuous to position your argument as being about something else (such as pretending to be advocating for good government).

But its not about profit-making purely. Because if it was, there are easier ways to make a profit ... like the way these crony motherfuckers do it with their dealerships.

Let's not forget the $500M loan Uncle Sam, er, The American Taxpayers, made to Musk, which in the case of Tesla failing, would have been a write off for us, but in the case of Tesla succeeding, only makes us a bit of interest, while making a billionaire more billions.

Tesla repaid their loan nine years early and is the only American car company to have fully repaid the government ever. This is a company the American Taxpayer should be truly proud of.

Also, do you really believe Elon Musk started an electric car company, a company which builds rockets and one which is the largest residential solar power provider in the country, under the only premise to make more money?

I would prefer that if the government is using our money to support companies we should at least get an ownership stake. As it stands, E-Mizzle, who already had a large personal fortune, received a huge risk free loan from us.

Perhaps your government felt that there would be non-financial benefits to supporting efforts to make affordable electric cars. Can you not think of any?

Certainly. If you are in the business of making high risk low interest loans for no equity stake, please contact me immediately.

People complain about "corporate welfare" but Musk gets the "cool sustainable tech bro!" pass.

> I don't think that profit is his motivating factor.

People are allowed to have multiple motivations.

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