Auchtoon!Congratulations, Elon Musk and Tesla!
I am sure you’re all at least somewhat aware of the latest antics of the super-rich sideshow known as Elon Musk. As with all billionaire man-children (even the ones who are not in fact billionaires but overleveraged former presidents), I find it healthier to keep a distance — an awareness of the shenanigans without the details of the skulduggery.
Having grown up in Flint, I’m well aware of the consequences of very wealthy “captains of industry” making disastrous decisions. In the 1980s, the American automotive manufacturers were still in a very advantageous position. But they kind of pissed away a lot of it with, among other things, buying aerospace companies and slagging their workers instead of, you know, building better cars.
It struck me that Elon Musk is something of a modern-day version of that — all the stupidity and chuzpah but with exponentially more self-promotion. What a waste of resources. But I think you should know that I did show some restraint. I didn’t mention anything about his cars catching fire. (Of course that would have been more of a 1970s American automobile manufacturer thing.)
