If you don't already know Elon's govt scheming, read about Mike Griffin and Elons missile defense contracts with the US DoD.
You're being disingenuous by claiming carbon credits are the only form of government largesse or incentive.
Don't fault Tesla for that as if the government is propping them up. At this point very little of Tesla's money comes from.
You using Norway is disingenuous they have just over half the population of New Jersey. They are incredibly small. Meanwhile Tesla is #1 in all of Europe.
https://www.tesla.com/blog/what-you-need-know-about-federal-...
https://www.tesla.com/support/incentives
Tesla claims they pay up to 7500 for every Tesla (depending on the time bought), up to 30% + 400$ for every powerwall for example.
This is what gets me. He's basically speedrunning a world-class demonstration of the lesson of Chesterton's fence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...
https://watchfuleye.online/whisky70/2017/8/1/the-one-great-m...
As much as I want to see Mastodon succeed, I don't see it ever happening. Its biggest feature (multiple instances) is also the biggest reason most users are never going to use it. It's just too confusing for the end user. Also it's bizarre that the one instance that actually has the potential to gain mainstream interest (mastodon.social) is not accepting new invites.
I'd put my money on something new taking Twitter's place way before Mastodon.
Something new, like what? When there's a big user exodus from some kind of service or platform, there has to be something for them to flock to right then. When Digg imploded, Reddit was there to absorb the exodus. Right now, Mastodon is there, even if it has significant downsides. Users aren't just going to wait around for something ideal to be built for them.
This is particularly surprising to me also, for a different reason. Since Musk was a key player at PayPal, he should have learned that although the vast majority of users are well-intentioned and harmless, there are a small group of scammers and criminal who MUST be dealt with or they will rapidly bankrupt you.
On Twitter, we must add to the list of scammers & criminals the additional bots, trolls, and pranksters, all of whom can rapidly destroy trust in a community (online or off).
Why he didn't carry that lesson forward to this platform is baffling (unless he's in a contest with Kanye and the FTX crypto guy to see who can create the largest and most rapid-burning money bonfire).
That's mostly a legend. In actuality he took some part in some company that got bought by another company which eventually became PayPal.
Heck, it is something that is already obvious to everyone here, and most of us were never employed in banking or payments operations...
And it also doesn't take a genius to make changes a little slower and more conservatively. For instance, in this case they should have at least added ID verification (of the kind Facebook sometimes forces people to do), and only allowed people to verify their real names for $8.
It seems like Musk also got too used to people cutting him slack for his crap at Tesla and SpaceX, but those companies have mission narratives that people can "believe in." That's not the case for Twitter, and it's looking like Musk is going to slam into the ground without that net to catch him.
It also doesn't help that there's a Twitter replacement (Mastodon) waiting in the wings. IIRC, Bad decisions like Musk's killed Digg, because Reddit was there to take the exodus.