Does Musk Suck

“I think there’s no actual limit to the size of the economy.” Elon Musk

Elon Musk

What is it about Elon Musk that gets people so riled up? Musk has gone from poster boy, engineering genius, inspiration to humanity – to hated, despised, oligarch. How did it happen? Mixing with the wrong company is one reason, succumbing to historic and childhood prejudices is another, suffering egomania of the hyper rich has trapped him, whilst being insensitive to the suffering of others who are way down the totem pole. Even Joe Rogan and friends are fed up with Elon Musk, or so the headlines read. Many are the reasons, why people are really angry with Musk.

Bad Company

Two factors that have defined Trump’s second term as President, tariffs and Elon Musk. Musk’s association with Trump helped Trump get re-elected with the hundreds of millions of dollars, oligarch Musk contributed to Trumps presidential campaign. In return, Musk became a senior Trump advisor and appointed to lead DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency.

DOGE

Musk, as the face of DOGE became a pariah to the public when he laid off thousands in various government institutions. He has been accused of targeting departments who could investigate Trump’s and his own alleged wrong doings. Jordan Peterson acknowledged Musk as a brilliant engineer with successful businesses, he is a details-oriented guy, who checks every line in the financials. Supporters of Musk’s efforts with DOGE say he has saved billions of taxpayer money.

Tariffs

Until Trump imposed tariffs, Trump and Musk operated together in sync. Each backed the other over actions with DOGE and border controls. Liberation Day tariffs changed that relationship, because tariffs affected Musk’s businesses directly.  Musk expressed his dissatisfaction on ‘X’, he messaged, “Navarro is truly a moron”. Going further, “Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”

 Anger at Musk

Long term big investors in Tesla stock like Ross Gerber are upset that Musk has neglected Tesla business. Others have accused Musk of doing irreparable damage to the brand due to his association with DOGE. His dalliance in politics has been disastrous for the brand and stock value. Setting fire to several Tesla vehicles is a lasting image of the hate for Musk while being the face of DOGE. Demonstrations outside of Tesla stores against Musk’s DOGE activities continued.

Hopeful

There are others, like me, who despite our disappointment with Musk’s political ambitions, prefer to remember the inspiration he gave us. His aspirations for humankind keep people engaged, hopeful that he will focus his energies to achieve goals he sets for himself, his businesses and the human race.  

“I think there's no actual limit to the size of the economy. Once you have general purpose humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles, you can build anything. But the economy is really just the average productivity per person times number of people. That's the economy. And if you've got humanoid robots, where there's no real limit on the number of humanoid robots, and they can operate very intelligently and (then) there's no meaningful limits to the economy. The good future of AI is one of immense prosperity. Where there is an age of abundance, no shortage of goods and services, everyone can have whatever they want.

Anything, that is of manufactured goods, or provided service, with the advent of AI plus robotics, the cost of business services will trend to zero.” Elon Musk.

For some Musk is a disappointment, but for many others Musk is not a sucker. He is still an inspiration.