Sure but in capitalism you have to do right by your shareholders and a personal gripe against some kid related thing isn’t directly shareholder related.
So are we doing snowflake feelings capitalism now? Or delivering shareholder value?
While this is true in theory, in practice the people who control _private_ companies are almost never punished for prioritising personal gain or other personal priorities over the good of the shareholders. Different story for public companies, of course, but these aren't public companies.
Musk does "whatever he damn well feels like" capitalism. He made a barely driveable eyesore and deathtrap that would have put any other company out of business, just because he wanted to make a future car. He burned $44 billion just to buy the social media platform he blames for making his daughter trans and redpill it to spite "the wokes." He couldn't care less about shareholders. He's a manchild playing with toys.
Are you one of those people who believes Elon Musk built everything by hand in a cave with scraps or something?
Musk invested in technologies other people were working on and companies other people started, and hired other people who made it all work (often, given anecdotal reports, in spite of him.) Let's please stop pretending none of that would have been possible without some singular genius on his part.
> Let's please stop pretending none of that would have been possible without some singular genius on his part
Sure, granted. The claim isn't re-usable rockets and mass-market EVs aren't possible without Musk. It's that it wouldn't be reality at scale today.
Musk has a rare combination of leadership, management and political ability that lets him coordinate large groups of people and capital on resource-intensive, long-term, long-shot goals; achieve those goals; and make money on it, thereby making the process repeatable. That doesn't excuse his nonsense public behaviour. But that behaviour, in turn, doesn't erase his accomplishments.
