Wow. I'm an Elon Musk fan too but this is a bit much. He didn't give anything to the world. He is a businessman-he gets paid very handsomely to do the things he does.

At very least, it is in society's best interest to socially reward people working on solving big problems instead of doing lucrative things that just exploit people.

That is an absolutely disgusting attitude.

True innovators carry all of humanity on their backs, and give massively to all of humanity, present and future.

The fact that they get some monetary compensation doesn't entitle you to not be grateful and to not recognize their heroism.

It does not entitle you to imply, as you have, that they deserve the same level of praise as any person who is paid for any work whatsoever.

You are, by implication, equating Elon Musk to the teenager flipping burgers, or any other menial laboror.

That is moral treason.

Without innovators, we would all be dying in pestilence-ridden Stone Age villages. In my opinion, those who claim that innovators do not deserve the highest of possible praise _deserve_ that fate.

No wo(man) is an island.

Musk would have a hard time innovating if he had to build his own house, grow his own food, knit his own clothes, etc. etc...

We all rely on each other to provide our basic standards of living.

Without our basic needs being satisfied, we don't have a platform from which to focus on innovation.

Yes, innovation is great, but don't act like they are the entire backbone of humanity.

Elon Musk is probably at least millions of times more productive than the average human.

If you were to calculate the sum of gains and losses between Elon Musk and humanity, it would balance out that Elon Musk is overwhelmingly the creditor, and humanity is overwhelmingly the debtor.

As with the great-grandparent of this comment, your comment is a massive moral equivocation.

We shouldn't expect him to demonstrate his idea?

He says he won't do it himself for a long time. He's busy with other things.

I think tesla motors releasing an affordable car would benefit the world a lot more than the hyperloop. But it's nice that he is presenting the idea so the world can do their own analysis and even implement it before he has the chance.

>>I think tesla motors releasing an affordable car would benefit the world a lot more than the hyperloop.

Specifically, an affordable Tesla car could benefit the entire world, whereas the Hyperloop would (at least initially) only benefit people living in LA and SF.

What are the benefits to the world market of an affordable Tesla compared to, say, a modernized version of the Volkswagen Lupo, or a plug-in Up! ?

They both benefit the world. Fact is, there is no modernized 3-Liter-Lupo, and I've heard no rumors that there ever will be (?). Until there is, Tesla will be the one who demonstrates what is possible.

Really specifically, an affordable Tesla would (at least initially) benefit only those who were able to buy an affordable Tesla given the still significant cost and Tesla production constraints.

They both have the potential to be hugely beneficial to the entire world. Although in Tesla's case it's more of a certainty... fortunately we can have both :-)

He noted (just today!) that he'll be working on a subscale demonstration of the technology.

Link?

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