Comment by manlymuppet
1 day ago
Would you the same thing if it wasn't Elon Musk at the helm of this company? I'm not a big fan of him either, but I get the feeling some don't want to like this demo.
Also the public government funds being received are in the form of contracts. It's not like they can just use the money anywhere. Both Tesla and SpaceX are likely using private money (that is to say, funds not from the government) to fund this.
If it was a smaller scrappier company I would think it was neat, but this company and associated companies represents so much of the market and so many resources. And I don't know it just seems like they are doing like...monster truck derby stunts?? It's just kind of underwhelming to see this is what they are spending their time on for me. I was expecting a lot more.
> It's not like they can just use the money anywhere
I mean SpaceX was literally caught buying Cybertrucks it's clear there's some corruption. But aside from that, they also just represent such a large chunk of the market that it's hard to argue that they aren't just siphoning funds from other ventures somewhat even outside of public misappropriation. I wouldn't even mind that if I felt like they earned it, but it just feels like the stock was pumped as a meme or something. The engineering is impressive but not impressive IMO for what they are worth.
SpaceX doesn't exclusively fund itself through government money. They have plenty of private investors, and they used private money to buy those Cybertrucks. This purcahse is not the clear sign of corruption you present it to be; there is zero evidence that money from government contracts was used.
Government contracts are not grants. There are specific appropriations for where that money is allowed to be used.
And as for your point about the funds going to other ventures, sure I guess. You're free to think whatever you want about which private companies deserve funding, but it's not like it's unfair to anyone when two private agents get together and agree to do something. That is the case even if the private investor funds the private company to do something considered phony and pointless.