To all of you New Yorkers, the New York Knicks are worth $10 billion dollars. If we dissolved the franchise we could use that money to end world hunger. Stop celebrating greed.
If we turned off all Federal and State government handout programs for 1yr we could each pocket $15,000. 15k. Not bad. Best part? We can do it next year too.
Can we debunk this nonsense?
Elon Musk was awarded (note: not given) cost-per-result contracts to perform a service for the US government. The total of those for SpaceX specifically is ~$22B, which includes repaid loans, state tax incentives, etc.
The deal was simple: put stuff into LEO at or below a set cost. If SpaceX does it below the set cost, SpaceX keeps the difference. If it doesn’t, the company is responsible for the overrun.
End result? SpaceX & Elon lowered the cost of getting 1 kg into LEO by 95-97% vs what NASA was paying previously.
And for the record, every other company around at the time was offered the same opportunity to bid on the contract - Musk/SpaceX just took it.
The handout narrative implies the taxpayer is the patron and SpaceX the dependent. The cost data shows the opposite: before SpaceX, NASA paid Russia’s Soyuz $80-86M per seat; SpaceX delivered at ~$55 million. SpaceX saved the US taxpayer $300M-$465M each year on that alone (the US sends 12-15 astronauts to space each year)
On the lunar lander, NASA estimated SpaceX’s fixed-price bid saved $20B-$30B vs the Boeing-preferred cost-plus approach.
So: SpaceX saved the US taxpayer more than the total value of contracts it earned on a single project, PLUS provided the US government with the requested services (put stuff in LEO) at the best possible price.
bro immigrated from Mexico and took a $28/hr contract welding job in 2015.
didn't even know what SpaceX was.
they gave him $10,000 in stock and let him buy more through payroll deductions.
that stake is now worth $880,000.
and he's one of 4,400 employees who became millionaires on Friday. welders. technicians. cafeteria staff.
Elon Musk did not today take $1 trillion from anyone. He created $2.3 trillion in value that did not exist prior to him creating SpaceX. New inventions create new value in the world. They don’t transfer existing value. If you do not understand this, please, take a basic economics course, or remain on the sidelines.
Oh yes, I remember that Bond film where the villain decarbonized the auto industry, brought fast internet to everyone on the planet, and helped paralyzed people interact with the world again.
Fun fact: @GavinNewsom has budgeted >300% more tax dollars for a nonexistent California rail system than SpaceX raised in private capital in its entire history as a private company.
Amazon is a fantastic litmus test because it’s the single clearest example in existence of a capitalist doing an incredible and immense service to humanity and leftists still invent bunk reasons to hate it.
AOC with zero life achievements: "Elon Musk is not a scientist, he’s not an engineer, he’s a billionaire conman with a lot of money" 🤡
Elon Musk: "Can you believe it? That's crazy, anyway... what did you get done this week?"
"Thank a millennial"/"thank a hipster" no, incorrect, regrettably you must thank SYSCO or US Foods' Premium Line if you can find creole crabcakes, Peruvian empanadas, and tuna sashimi on the same menu
@googlemaps yes, when I searched for sushi, what I really wanted you to show me was one sushi restaurant, a grocery store, and a Mexican restaurant. Great. Thank you, Google Maps. Very good.