Comparing Musk to Henry Ford is a good starting place, engineers whose global reach had little to do with engineering once the empire was up and running. One big difference was Ford's core business was highly profitable. Musk's core SpaceX keeps getting used to hide his money-losing projects, which doesn't seem too stable. Add in that SpaceX is successful largely due to the work of its CEO Shotwell, not Musk, and all that's left is Musk's skill at handling investors. Krugman calls Musk a Ponzi scheme, hard to disagree.
A quibble: vertical integration of the sort discussed is not Musk's invention at all. Apple is the most salient example that immediately springs to mind here.
It’s worth considering Muskismus in the context of the evolution, or erosion, of the nation state. The nation state type of political organization is largely about hard and fast borders: This currency changes to that one across this line, stamps and phone calls cost more when they cross it, the uniforms and technology of state-run coercion change from police to army. Often they are founded on a language-based social organization, which the state manages through mass education in history and grammar. Digital first took out the borders of communication with email, then the borders of currency with crypto (not too successfully, but stablecoins are a blend.) Now drones and surveillance technologies, powered by digital computation, are blurring the borders in state violence. Social media uses memes and images that are often transnational.
The powers creating and controlling the new technologies don’t recognize state boundaries, and are coopting the old states into something new. Which may not be in the interest of democratic representation.
Musk "launched" SpaceX and Xai at the time Tesla was weakening as a high-growth, cult-fueled business, now largely supported through billions in carbon-credits paid by polluting companies. Most if not all of the glowing promises made to investors on Tesla's future have fallen well short of the exaggerated promises. Now, Elno is repeating the Tesla (early) success story with SPCX, and there is even rumors of him folding Tesla into SPCX, and given the ownership structure, voting shares, and hand-picked BoDs, who's to doubt this...after all, what Elno wants, Elno gets.
So, it's off to the races, yet again, with a mammoth following of willing and unwilling investors sending share prices to the moon — actually, to Mars! — and the ringmaster pocketing the lion's share of the rubes' money. It has worked so well for Musk's Tesla promotions, so why not really go for the gold with SPCX fantasizing?
Comparing Musk to Henry Ford is a good starting place, engineers whose global reach had little to do with engineering once the empire was up and running. One big difference was Ford's core business was highly profitable. Musk's core SpaceX keeps getting used to hide his money-losing projects, which doesn't seem too stable. Add in that SpaceX is successful largely due to the work of its CEO Shotwell, not Musk, and all that's left is Musk's skill at handling investors. Krugman calls Musk a Ponzi scheme, hard to disagree.
A quibble: vertical integration of the sort discussed is not Musk's invention at all. Apple is the most salient example that immediately springs to mind here.
It’s worth considering Muskismus in the context of the evolution, or erosion, of the nation state. The nation state type of political organization is largely about hard and fast borders: This currency changes to that one across this line, stamps and phone calls cost more when they cross it, the uniforms and technology of state-run coercion change from police to army. Often they are founded on a language-based social organization, which the state manages through mass education in history and grammar. Digital first took out the borders of communication with email, then the borders of currency with crypto (not too successfully, but stablecoins are a blend.) Now drones and surveillance technologies, powered by digital computation, are blurring the borders in state violence. Social media uses memes and images that are often transnational.
The powers creating and controlling the new technologies don’t recognize state boundaries, and are coopting the old states into something new. Which may not be in the interest of democratic representation.
Musk "launched" SpaceX and Xai at the time Tesla was weakening as a high-growth, cult-fueled business, now largely supported through billions in carbon-credits paid by polluting companies. Most if not all of the glowing promises made to investors on Tesla's future have fallen well short of the exaggerated promises. Now, Elno is repeating the Tesla (early) success story with SPCX, and there is even rumors of him folding Tesla into SPCX, and given the ownership structure, voting shares, and hand-picked BoDs, who's to doubt this...after all, what Elno wants, Elno gets.
So, it's off to the races, yet again, with a mammoth following of willing and unwilling investors sending share prices to the moon — actually, to Mars! — and the ringmaster pocketing the lion's share of the rubes' money. It has worked so well for Musk's Tesla promotions, so why not really go for the gold with SPCX fantasizing?
Ain't capitalism great!