The so-called “subsidies” to Tesla | “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson

 

From the very readable “Elon Musk”, by Walter Isaacson

I’ve seen this claim made against Elon Musk countless times, on X and elsewhere -- that Tesla was given “subsidies”, an unfair leg up over others. Not true. At all. As in the above explanation from a wonderful new bio of Musk. 

People just love hate on Elon. Now more than ever because he bought Twitter, renamed it “X” and has made it more of a heterodox platform. They hate outside-the-narrative views! 

Note here: Tesla only took a loan. It was less than the other car companies took, and repaid it early and in full, which other car companies have not. Meantime, the likes of GM and Chrysler have had huge injections of interest free “bailouts”, which they have done little with. 

It’s no longer the case that “success has many fathers, failure is an orphan”. 

The case now is “success has many critics and failure is fine, as long as you agree with the Blob”.