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Government Is ‘The Biggest Corporation, With a Monopoly on Violence, Where You Have No Recourse’

“Say tomorrow you receive a call from Joe Biden,” they asked. Wall Street JournalJoanna Stern is a tech columnist who met with Elon Musk during a Monday evening forum. “And he asked: What do you need from this? [$2 trillion spending] bill? What do you say to him?

Musk made a sly reference to Don Draper, joking that “we don’t really think about it at all.” Musk stated, “It might have been better if this bill didn’t pass.” “The federal budget deficit is insane…something’s gotta give, you can’t just spend $3 trillion more than you own every year and don’t expect something bad to happen.”

This bill shows a great deal of support for E.V.s [electric vehicles]…and it helps Tesla,” Stern told Musk. Stern asked Musk whether the bill should be rejected and the “what role does government play in your opinion.” should be?”

Musk replied, “I believe the role of government should be one of a referee but not on the field.” Musk continued: “Government should not hinder progress but get out of the way.” He continued:

Each year the rules and regulations are increasing. They are immutable, and they will never cease to exist. Occasionally you see some law with a sunset provision, but really, otherwise, the vast majority of rules and regulations live forever….Eventually it just takes longer and longer and it’s harder to do things. It’s difficult to find a reliable garbage collection system that can remove rules and regulations. So gradually, this makes the human arteries harder and you are able to do less in time. Therefore, I believe government should work hard to eliminate rules and regulations which may have had merit in the past but are not currently of merit.

“Honestly, it’s all I could do. Musk urged strongly, “Don’t pass it!”

Congress members are trying to get through the Build Back better bill this month. The tax credit would be $12,500 for U.S.-made electrical vehicles produced in unionized factories. That’s an increase from the current $7,500. Critics claim that Musk is not qualified to support E.V. Tesla factory workers are not unionized. However, there are many other reasons Musk should oppose the provisions. E.V. adoption and the creation of charging stations are plugging along just fine as is, no (market-distorting, union-favoring) government intervention needed—a point specifically made by Musk, who noted that the federal government does not pay for gas stations and does not need to build E.V. Charging stations Musk clarified, “I am literally saying get rid all subsidies.” (It is worth noting, however that charging station subsidies had been included in the infrastructure bill. This means the details of both the eye-poppingly expensive bills are becoming a little confusing.

Musk’s denial of government intervention is nice, but Musk has unquestionably benefitted handsomely in the past from government subsidies, so it seems a bit like Musk is pulling the ladder behind him to endanger encroaching rivals.

Musk is the “model businessman” in Obama’s era, wrote Musk The Washington ExaminerTim Carney, a man who was in the same position as him many years back. His businesses flourish on regulations and mandates. Tesla’s award a federal loan guarantee To make the plug-in car, also subsidised through Tax credits available for buyers. SolarCity’s suppliers include subsidized panel manufacturers. Customers get tax credit for installing the panels. SpaceX It is a large government contractor.

“Tesla Motors Inc. SolarCity Corp., Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and Tesla Motors Inc. have collectively benefited from $4.9 billion of government support,” according a 2015 report. Los Angeles Times‘ investigation. Musk and his investors get the most financial benefit from the government support while the taxpayers bear the burden. Recently, SpaceX, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and the Federal Communications Commission have been publicly incensed, each siccing on one side while simultaneously sucking at the government teat for millions of subsidies for satellite internet project.

Musk’s alleged motivations to end these subsidies are not a reason for Musk’s comments. When taken with his other government-skeptical statements—”it does not make sense to take the job of capital allocation away from people with a demonstrated great skill in capital allocation and give it to an entity that has demonstrated very poor skill in capital allocation”—it seems like Musk may have unseated free speech–loving warlock Jack Dorsey as America’s richest, staunchest government skeptic.

Musk stated that the government was simply the largest corporation and has a monopoly over violence. He also said that he believes billionaires such as Musk should see their wealth taken via taxation to be redistributed through the federal government. Is this the truth?