
California officials reject subsidies for SpaceX over Tesla spat - cft
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-california-spacex-idUSKBN22R389
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new_realist
Contrary to what Tesla told Alameda County, the Tesla factory is (illegally)
in full production, producing cars sitting on Pier 80 for export to Europe and
China. [https://tslaq.org/letter-from-the-saf-to-alameda-county-
offi...](https://tslaq.org/letter-from-the-saf-to-alameda-county-officials/)

That’s not an essential activity; it’s just greedily risking California lives
to serve luxury car consumers abroad. I’m not surprised that California is
none too happy with Elon.

~~~
msandford
So are we going to ban all cars now? Average automobile deaths are ~30k per
year. They're non essential. Let's all stop driving. "do whatever it takes to
save lives"

~~~
rajangdavis
That's not taking the argument in good faith. Car accidents aren't infectious
and furthermore, we don't see 30k deaths in the span of 2 months.

I think Musk could have fared better working with the government to make it
feasible to work in the Tesla factories and limit exposure and provide a model
for other businesses. Instead he just went ahead and has no guarantee that his
employees won't be exposed.

~~~
dgzl
Road rage is infectious but I'm not sure why it matters anyway.

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toomuchtodo
> “In my opinion, given the recent threats of the CEO to leave the state of
> California, and everything else we’ve discussed today, this proposal does
> not rise to the level for me to feel secure in supporting it,” said Gretchen
> Newsom, a panel member and the political director of an IBEW electrical
> workers union local.

> Though a small amount of money, the funding was opposed by organized labor
> groups. Tesla and SpaceX are both nonunion shops.

California is absolutely within their right to withhold these funds. Musk is
well within his right to relocate his businesses to Texas (SpaceX engine
facility in McGregor is a ~90 minute drive from Austin, ~2 hrs from Dallas) or
another favorable state when the next Gigafactory is sited. Let rational
actors go through their motions.

~~~
vulcan01
That is assuming that Musk is a rational person...

~~~
toomuchtodo
I actually quite enjoy when he’s exuberant, makes it more interesting. Boring
leaders are boring.

In this example, Tesla and SpaceX have created at least tens of thousands of
jobs in the state (Tesla indicates 50k+ if you include supplier related jobs),
and California might be cutting off its nose to spite its face over $600k.
That’s a very California thing to do, and if Musk loses his shit over that,
it’d be a very Musk thing to do.

~~~
augustt
That kind of thinking got us #45. Some things are more important than
entertainment.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Climate change is very important. Extinction level important. Don’t like the
horse, run a better horse. This horse is doing pretty well despite the
occasional tirade or Twitter meltdown. I can live with that.

~~~
jackguy
The horse that just fired the IG for investigating his friend Pompeo?

~~~
toomuchtodo
No, the rocket electric car one.

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smsm42
Both sides look bad for me here. Musk for asking $655k of state money when he
could obviously afford to foot such a bill on his own - just in April 2019
they raised half a billion, surely they could afford to spend 0.1% of that on
"training funds" without milking the taxpayer. I understand that if the funds
are available a savvy businessman would take them even if they don't need them
- but that doesn't exactly elicit sympathy.

And California, of course, by conditioning distribution of tax funds which
should be equally available to every qualifying business on kowtowing to
politicians and denying the funds if somebody dares to challenge their
policies. That's not how these funds are supposed to work, if they serve any
purpose it's not to give Newsom or his minions a leverage to shut up their
opponents.

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readams
Sounds like this is much more about organized labor trying to act like a mafia
than it is about Musk; this is just a convenient excuse. They oppose the
funding because it's nonunion.

