14 June

Part 2 on Musk. And for the millionth time, I’m not a ‘fan’ of Musk. Nor am I against Musk. I just want to understand the specific material things he does, which I think are revolutionary. There’s critical things to learn here, I think. If you want to play righteous team sports, skip and get back to your hashtags. The pile-on about his extreme wealth. Actually as Musk has said many times, he has almost no money to spend, of his own. He lives relatively modestly. He borrows from banks to have spending money, using his companies as collateral. Have a look at the breakdown. The key is the liquidity column, I’ve highlighted in red. How much of his ‘wealth’ he can actually access. Almost none of it. And the only liquid assets he has, Tesla, he couldn’t cash in without crashing the company. Why does he do this? Because the vision of the companies is enormous, on a planetary and now inter-planetary scale. He needs a mountain of money to do the things. So he ‘floats’ the companies. But at the same time keeps dominant holdings of the stock, so he gets to make sure the companies can focus on their material visions, and not shareholder profit-taking (which is what dominates other public companies). He uses his equity to steer the use of the massive funds, towards the material outcomes. Not his own enrichment. Where will you find Musk most days? In one of his factories. And nights too, he often sleeps there. His true passion is building things. His idiot culture-warring on social media is just a hobby. See my other post today, like Undershaft he has appalling personal views on many social issues. It’s irrelevant unless you live inside social media. Which most now do. He’s often contrasted with other modern billionaires and their wonderful philanthropic work. That’s Shaw’s ‘snivelling morality’ again. That’s their guilt money, their actual *businesses* do fuck all to improve the world. So they shower good causes with cash, as a salve to their conscience. Musk doesn’t have that money to spend, it’s tied up in the businesses, doing good work.