I'm a fan of Tesla; but I'm not a fan of Tesla Motor Cars. The capitalist in me gets insulted, and the venom pours out when people justify, either privately or publicly, the use of taxpayer dollars to further their own interests. If you've read my blog more than once, you've read my use of the term “parasite” to describe such individuals and companies.
The conundrum is this: if you produce a product, and/or service, that is truly viable for the marketplace, then you don't need subsidizing. There's already enough demand in the market for what you produce. If the people want it; you will sell it. And if you do need subsidizing, then there isn't enough demand for what you produce. The marketplace doesn't want it. But you need, and get, extra money to prop up your company a little longer – long enough to live a bit longer at the taxpayers' expense, producing what they don't want, until the eventual happens anyway – bankruptcy.
These bailouts and subsidies are government-forced distortions of the “free” market – which right now is costing we taxpayers a fortune. So our market is no longer free, as in unregulated; nor is it free, as in costing us nothing until we decide to act within it. In our current conditions, all we have to do is go to work, if we still have a job, and go home. Having done just that much, our “free” market has cost us tremendously. Go nowhere – you pay. Buy nothing – you pay. Breathe the air – you pay. What does this say about our constitutional rights to pursue our life, liberty and personal happiness?
So in this video, the Tesla Motor Cars CEO “justifies” the company's use of tax dollars, above and beyond the large chunk of private venture capital they've already received, in a vitriolic response to a receptive interviewer. In essence, what he says is: why pick on the little guy, who's taking so little, when Detroit is taking much more? But the size of your unethical actions don't make the least bit of difference. They're still unethical. It's as if he's saying: hey, we're only taking a little bit of your money to produce some products you don't want. What's the problem?
In a truly free marketplace, the axiom “if you build it, they will come” doesn't hold true. The market rewrites such silliness to more like: if they want it, they will demand it, and someone will make it, and be rewarded handsomely.
I have a suspicion that Nikola Tesla would feel the same way about this car company that bears his name. The original Tesla invented and produced products that we still use today – alternating current, the A/C motor, the first remotely controlled devices and the first robotics, fluorescent light bulbs, current amplifiers, air hammers, remote power sourcing, and on and on and on.... The title of the story on Yahoo Finance states, “Tesla CEO Blasts Critic, Says Gov't Loan is 99% Sure – and Deserved.” Given the mindless largess of the current administration, I'm sure the “loan” is guaranteed. But “Deserved”? This critic agrees with the first critic. It's not in the least bit deserved. And I'll bet the real Tesla is spinning in his grave with the idea that a car company that has sold less than 400 cars to date, has to go hat-in-hand to the government for taxpayer financing.
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