That isn’t unique to either the US or modern times.
It’s always been the case and always will be.
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These Tesla trucks aren’t just Elon’s product but they are one of the ugliest cars going, they do suggest small cock energy.
Like some of the other Tesla models are quite nice.
Just got into a bit of a argument at work woth someone all in favor of Elon Musk and DOGE, I usually don’t bother but they drew me in.
Anyway I argued that things would be better if billionaires paid more tax. They said billionaires already pay loads of tax, to which I said they clearly don’t pay enough because they still have billions of dollars while the rest of us panic about making it to the next pay day.
They actually agreed with me about that and had no retort, to be fair to them.
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Next week they’ll be on leave, attending a Bernie Sanders rally.
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Funnily enough I think we actually agree on a lot of things but their view of the world is poisoned by right wing media so their ideas of solutions are directly counter to the result they want.
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Are you saying they’re stupid? 
That’s one down. Go get the next one.
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I was looking up Tesla’s shareholders and was surprised to see that Musk only owns just under 13% of the shares. I’m just wondering what the other shareholders think of his antics, and for that matter, why do they allow him to be the face of the company?
I know Henry Ford had a rather unhealthy antisemitism, which apparently his son, Edsel, had to manoeuvre around when he was chairman of the car business. But I have always wondered about these businessmen as personality cults.
I could never understand the attraction of Steve Jobs. His products seemed quite attractive, but Jobs came across as a rather unpleasant character that I wouldn’t want any truck with. You could throw Bezos, Zuckerberg and even Richard Branson in to that category.
The odd thing is, that the billionaires that seem to have all the bizarre conspiracy theories about them are Bill Gates, George Soros, and Warren Buffett, who also happen to be amongst the world’s mots generous philanthopists.
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Guess the other ~15% is Musk.
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Tesla has supermajority voting rules (2/3rds) for most major changes, so the 13% means that he really needs to be just 20% of the shareholders on board to block any action. That is weaker than it used to be, 5 years ago I believe he had 25%.
A grad school friend of mine ended up working most of his career with Apple, and had direct contact with Jobs. His take was interesting, Jobs was not a nice man, he was difficult to work with, but also very inspiring. In contrast to Musk, he did not have a reputation as someone with an urge to oversimplify things he did not understand, so was able to balance autocratic leadership with the ability to get the best of his teams.
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Google translate
IG Metall accuses Tesla of intimidating its employees at the Grünheide plant. Apparently, the electric car manufacturer withheld the wages of employees on sick leave and doubts their medical certificates.
The dispute between Tesla and employee representatives in Germany over high levels of absenteeism is escalating. The IG Metall union is accusing management at the Tesla plant in Grünheide of intimidating the workforce. Specifically, the issue is the recognition of sick notes, explained an IG Metall spokesperson. “Tesla often retroactively questions employees’ sick notes as a first step, demanding that diagnoses be disclosed and doctors be released from their duty of confidentiality.”
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While I understood the interest in investment in that region and that Musk wasn’t widely seen as quite as toxic as he is now, this was such a doomed project from the start, water issues, that corporate ‘style’ of Musk etc.
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