However, none of those things you've listed above are illegal. Corporate espionage, however, is illegal. That's the line separating what you've listed from what 'some guy' did.
The law may be an ass, but it's the law. It's up to society to care enough about 'not nice' to force the laws to be changed.
(This doesn't relate to your sympathy, but it does relate to how a business acts to maximise it's own interests within the limitations provided by the state / federal laws).
I think the obvious solution, the one which would truly be just, is to impose the proper punishment on everyone equally. We should not give someone a pass just because someone else successfully worked the system. Improve the system so that the wealthy are held equally accountable and cannot escape justice.
Gives me the kind of angst that Vader experienced when informed of Padme's passing. But less comically lame and more existentially threatening.
I'm a software engineer at SpaceX, and the idea that the average engineer here works 7 days a week is patently false. The average engineer here works 50-55 hours a week -- which I would argue is no different than any other top startup.
We work hard because we are fervently passionate about our mission and wanting to make a positive impact on the world. SpaceX recruits top talent, and every engineer that I know could easily get another job if they had any desire. Me and almost every other engineer at SpaceX that I've spoken to love working for SpaceX and Elon, so please don't pity SpaceX engineers or use it as a talking point in your vendetta against him.
obviously the hiring managers aren't passionate enough to hire enough smart minds to get the work done within reasonable working hours. I'm sure it's not rocket science to see that if you take a job that requires 15 engineers but only hire 10 and keep the same deadline, then some member of upper management gets a fraction of those unused 5 salaries as his quarterly bonus, while you get to feel like a corporate hero for sacrificing 30-50% of your family time.
FTR I love what SpaceX has done and a lot of what Mr Musk has accomplished. I'm just saying if we want to play the game of leveling moral judgments at each other, let the games begin.
It's my life and I don't see how there's a controversy that I choose to spend it doing what I love -- especially when I honestly believe that I'm contributing to something that's making the world a better place. I think if you spoke to most SpaceX engineers, they'd say the same thing; the ones that I know (and I probably know a lot more than you) feel the same.
Do you have sources for your other claims?
And that includes Elon, and he can be judged for it.
As for my other claims, I'm from Reno and I know what the labor situation is like up there and how Tesla lied to the city and county about their plans.
But there is no case to suggest that tax shopping is a moral failing. It is just the same as a person looking for a house or a car: you find what is in your budget and make decisions based on comfort and other non-fiscal concerns.
* shopped around US cities to bargain for the most corporate welfare tax breaks for his gigafactory, effectively shoveling the taxburden onto the residents.
* promised so many new jobs to Reno for the gigafactory, but most of the construction contracts were given to out of state construction firms.
* uses "third party" contractor loopholes to separate workers from the company so they can be easily over worked (12 hour shifts) then discarded
* same is true for the tesla factory in CA.
* overworks the engineers at SpaceX and throws them away if they don't work 7 days a week.
* started paypal, whose profits derive from circumventing banking laws by claiming not to be a bank, whose reputation for stealing/freezing money is unsurpassed by anyone except criminal enterprise.
So I'm sorry bud. I don't have any sympathy because some guy copied your files. In fact this is likely just a publicity stunt.