tway2888888
...In the long run, and on average.
Economic "laws" aren't ironclad; people are free to make all kinds of poor decisions, and they do. This is the foundation of the parable of the economist walking down the street and refusing to pick up the $20 bill, because if it were real, someone already would have.
We know how things should work, but they often don't. That's what is interesting.
He's selling things that he can't produce now, and possibly won't ever be able to produce. If you think this is simply about missing a few deadlines, you aren't following along close enough.
Telling people profits are around the corner for years on end, that self-driving is around the corner for years on end, that you'll build a mass-market $35,000 car for years on end, all the while collecting money to do so. Being very coy about disclosures. Playing the Trump "fake news" card (every negative article is fake!).
I remember coming to HackerNews and reading about Theranos, and anyone who claimed it wouldn't work was sexist or couldn't dream big enough. We are lazy bums, and these people are changing the world! Who are we to criticize?
>If Tesla disappears, this could set back electric cars by 5yrs
Five whole years of setback? Versus the hundreds of thousands of jobs related to GM, as well as their world class self-driving tech and decent EV programs? Maybe you need to reassess what you "care" about.
>Why doesn't Elon get this amount of rope?
If he didn't want to be accountable to shareholders, he should have kept the company private. Why is it that HackerNews acts like companies go public as a favour to the rest of us poor schlubs?
I worked 4 years in a Canadian Auto Workers unionized plant. This is not my experience, whatsoever.
If you do your job, you can't be fired because you rub your manager the wrong way (imagine that?). If you don't, there's a process to fire employees. A union is just that: a union of people. If you're a cancerous employee, the union doesn't want to work with you either.
How is Musk an engineer? Musk has a degree in physics and economics according to Wikipedia. At least where I'm from, you don't call yourself or someone else an engineer if you didn't go to engineering school.