Giving Thanks to Elon Musk.
This Thanksgiving, I give thanks to Elon Musk.
Today I’m going to do something controversial. I’m going to give thanks to Elon Musk. Admittedly, anyone that knows me is aware that I’m a huge fan of Elon and that I’ve owned 2 Teslas with the CyberTruck on order. You also know that I just returned from watching SpaceX launch the largest rocket humans have ever made. I’m biased. So let’s just get that out of the way now.
It’s deeply troubling to me that so many people passionately hate Elon Musk without any legitimate reason in my mind. Most of the “reasons” end up being “he’s a jerk” or “I wish he would just shut up.” Usually the complaint is vague or related to something he said, wrote, or a way he made someone feel.
I’m gonna state this right up front. I don’t really care what people say. I care about what they do. So let’s look at what he’s done.
The Accomplishments of Elon Musk that Most People Know About
Most people know about the fact that he started 6 companies that are worth over a billion dollars, on average, starting a billion dollar company every 5 years on average.
PayPal (1999), sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion
SpaceX (2002), valued at $150 billion as of October 2023
Tesla (2003), valued at $805 billion as of November 2023
Neuralink (2016), valued at $5 billion as of January 2023
The Boring Company (2016), valued at $5.7 billion as of 2022
OpenAI (2015), valued at $80-90 billion as of November 2023
Starlink IPO rumored for 2024 (Speculation) $1 billion+
Most people know that Elon is a first generation immigrant that was born in South Africa.
Most people know that he is a humanitarian that believes that humans are amazing and that humanity needs to be multi-planetary so that we can live on long into the future, he has risked all of his money and started SpaceX to try to make this possible.
SpaceX lowered the cost of space travel by a huge amount. Before SpaceX, the average cost of launching a payload into low-Earth orbit was around $1 billion. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket can launch a payload into low-Earth orbit for around $67 million, which is a 93% reduction in cost. (And still coming down in price!) Elon did this by landing rockets vertically, making their rockets in house, and making them rapidly reusable. All of these feats are absolutely astonishing achievements.
Most people know that Elon is concerned about climate change and that he thinks it is very risky for humans to release this much Co2 into the atmosphere.
He started Tesla and SolarCity as a way to move us towards and electrified future. He and his cousins built SolarCity/Tesla into one of the largest solar panel installers in the world.
Tesla is the only successful American mass manufacturing car company that has been built in the last 100 years. It’s all electric and creates the most batteries of any company ever.
Tesla and SolarCity are important because they capture and store the energy from the sun directly. It’s an important part of our switch away from dirty energy sources. We aren’t there yet, but these are important pieces to get us there.
*Remember: All energy on earth either comes from the sun or splitting/combining atoms. Oil, wind, natural gas, methane, wood burning - these are all just distillations of the sun’s energy. So capturing the energy directly from the sun and being able to store it in batteries is a much more efficient and cleaner way to do it than, as an example, having the sun’s energy get captured in algae and plankton, dying and going underground, having pressure and heat from the planet turn it into oil or coal over millions of years. Solar panels and batteries are much faster/more efficient. (But nuclear is still the best answer… but I digress)
Most people know of these amazing achievements. I would think that these achievements alone would be enough to warrant him to be a hero to every child in America… for his picture to be on every wall in American households. For Elon to be celebrated as an American immigrant success story. But that is certainly not what happened.
A September 2023 Quinnipiac University poll found that only 31% of Americans had a favorable view of Elon Musk. Shameful! Sad really.
That blows me away. The person that, in my eyes, biased as they may be, is currently doing more for humanity than any other human alive - is only viewed favorably by about a third of Americans.
Perhaps this is the way it has always been. Maybe Einstein, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Gates, Vanderbilt, - maybe they were all hated in their time.
Or maybe I’m just too biased and I’m missing something. That is certainly possible. I have a long history of being wrong on many topics.
But I think Elon Musk is the most important human alive, that his technical achievements are on par with or surpass any person that has ever lived, and that Elon may go down as the greatest inventor ever.
When I say “inventor” I want to be clear. I mean someone that not only theoretically creates something, but someone that actually brings that invention to life and makes a product that improves the lives of humans. Not just theoretical inventions.
I want to give Elon Musk Thanks and point out some of his lesser known accomplishments.
Elon’s Company SpaceX was the first Company to Offer NASA a Fixed Priced Contract - It revolutionized the space contracting process away from the “Cost-Plus Pricing Model”. Saving US Taxpayers billions of dollars.
Before 2012, and still today in many cases, the US Government pays their contractors on a Cost-Plus basis. Meaning that the US Government/Taxpayers pay their suppliers for all of their time and materials and then on top of that, the government guarantees the company a profit of anywhere from 2-10% in addition to covering all of their costs.
Imagine it this way, say you contracted me to build you a house and I said “No problem. You pay me for all my time & expenses and I get a 10% profit on top of that.” You agree.
If I spend $100,000 of my time and materials on the project, you guarantee me a $10,000 profit and your total price for the house is $110,000. Great deal!
But why would I charge you $100,000? If instead I spend $100,000 on the bathroom, $100,000 on the roof, $100,000 on the garage, and so on. I could end up spending $1,000,000 on the house. Now I get to pocket a $100,000 profit and your total cost on that house is now $1,100,000!
This is how NASA was, and in many cases, still is, paying contractors to get to space. Cost-Plus contracting is how the government spends a lot of its money. Even worse, about 30% of government contracts have just 1 company bidding on them! So not only do the contractors get to cover all their expenses, they have no incentive to save taxpayers money, and they are literally directly incentivized to come in late past their scheduled due date and over budget. It’s a scandal that no one talks about.
Think about all the government projects that you know of that run over budget and aren’t done on time. This is why!
In 2012, SpaceX was the first company to offer NASA a fixed price contract because Elon felt it was the right thing to do and would save American taxpayers a lot of money. This move has pushed the industry to slowly move away from cost-plus contracting. But it still happens a lot. This move saved the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions.
Elon Musk Paid More Federal Taxes in One Year than Any Other American Citizen In US History
Elon is a proud American immigrant and he has paid the largest individual tax bill of any American ever in a single year. In 2021, Elon paid about $11billion in federal taxes. Mike Bloomberg came in second at about $10billion in 2012. Despite this, people incorrectly claim that Elon takes money from the government and doesn’t pay any taxes. People even claim that Tesla only survived in 2008 because they stole money from the US taxpayers. This is completely wrong. Tesla did receive a generous loan from the US government but unlike GM, they paid it back early, with interest! The government actually made a profit on that loan. The opposite of what people believe.
Elon refused to allow China to own a part of Tesla. Unlike all other automakers and most US companies
Tesla was the first foreign automaker to be permitted to wholly own a manufacturing facility in China without the need for a joint venture with a Chinese company. This was a significant achievement, as China had previously required all foreign automakers to form joint ventures with Chinese companies in order to operate in the country. China still does this with many industries including automakers, pharmaceutical companies, telecommunications companies, technology companies, and more.
For example, let’s look at General Motors. The Chinese government owns half of “Shanghai GM”, the joint venture between General Motors (GM) and SAIC Motor Corporation (SAIC). This means that SAIC, the Chinese government, owns 50% of Shanghai GM, while GM owns the remaining 50%.
The Chinese government requires most foreign automakers to form joint ventures with the Government in order to operate in the country. This policy is “designed to help China acquire advanced technologies from foreign companies.” This policy literally allows the Chinese government to steal our US inventions.
When Elon heard of this policy, he said No, he said that it wasn’t in America’s interests and it wasn’t in Tesla’s interests. He was the first ever automaker to refuse to give their technology and secrets to the Chinese communist party.
Elon refused an investment from Sam Bankman Fried and suspected he was a fraud before he was exposed.
In May 2022, Samuel Bankman Fried(SBF), a con man that stole millions (maybe billions) from investors/Americans with a crypto scam, wanted to invest in Elon’s takeover of Twitter. Elon refused saying that he had "never trusted" SBF and that Elon’s"BS detector was redlining" when he talked to SBF.
Elon created his own school to educate his employees and their children
Elon Musk founded a school he called Ad Astra (To The Stars!) in 2014 as a lab school for his children and a select few SpaceX employees' children. The school's curriculum focuses on problem-solving and "first principles thinking" and emphasizes hands-on learning and project-based work. Musk believes that the current education system is failing to prepare students for the 21st century and that Ad Astra is better equipped to do so. It has since been spun out into an online learning supplemental school called Synthesis that is getting rave reviews from parents and students.
Elon saved countless lives in Ukraine by donating free satellite internet and communications when Russia disabled Ukraines internet & communications
Amidst the chaos of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service emerged as a beacon of hope. By activating Starlink in Ukraine, Musk provided much-needed internet access to a nation struggling to maintain communication infrastructure under siege.
Starlink has been praised by Ukrainian officials for its role in supporting both the military and civilian populations. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called Starlink "a critical tool" for Ukraine's defense, while Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has acknowledged the role Starlink played in helping the military "protect our country." Starlink has also been credited with saving countless lives by facilitating the coordination of humanitarian efforts and enabling the documentation of human rights abuses.
Elon created Neurolink as a brain computer interface that he hopes will allow paralyzed people to walk again.
Spinal cord issues interrupt the electrical signals that go from a person’s brain to the rest of their body and this is one reason that some people are paralyzed. Elon created Neurolink, a company that will connect our brains directly to computers. Neurolink is already in human clinical trials and they have already enabled monkeys to play the computer game Pong with only their thoughts/mind. This technology could soon allow paralyzed people to walk again and much more.
Elon is solving traffic jams with Boring Company
Elon hates traffic jams and he thinks they are a huge waste of humans time and resources. Elon created a company called Boring Company which is digging tunnels underground to connect cities so that we can eliminate traffic jams. You can go and use one right now in Las Vegas. It’s amazing. They use electric cars to transport people from Casinos, Hotels, and Convention centers in Las Vegas insanely quickly.
Elon Open sourced the X (Twitter) algorithm - Finally exposing what is happening with social media companies
Do you know who decides what you see on your timeline on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok? Do you think it’s healthy for you? What about your kids? Are you seeing lots of negative news or positive news? The real answer is, no one knows how it is decided what you see on your Facebook news feed. It’s a complex computer algorithm that is owned by Facebook, Google, & TikTok and they don’t tell anyone how it works.
Elon wanted to change that so when he took over Twitter/X, he open sourced the source code to the algorithm so that anyone can look at it and see exactly how the computer system decides what you see in your news feed. This will hopefully provide more transparency into what you see and your kids see in their news feed. Hopefully, improving the damage to mental health that these social networks may be causing in children.
Is Artificial Intelligence going to destroy the world? Are we going to end up like The Matrix Movie? Elon started OpenAI to try to help and has called for regulation by the government for years.
10 years ago, Elon and Google Founder Larry Page were debating the future of artificial intelligence(AI). At the time, Google was the leader in AI. Elon was expressing concern that AI had the potential to destroy humanity if it got too powerful and there were no safeguards put into place. Larry dismissed the idea and accused Elon of being a “Specist” for thinking that humans were superior to our potential future Robot / Computer overlords.
Elon was so disturbed by Larry’s dismissal of these concerns, especially given that Larry ran the most powerful AI company in the world, that Elon started the company OpenAI as an open sourced non-profit that had a mission to protect humans against the threat of a closed AI system that were only out to make a profit for a small group of people.
Elon ended up recruiting some of the top AI engineering talent away from Google to OpenAI and this ended up destroying the friendship between Larry and Elon.
Common Misconceptions about Elon
Didn’t he lie about “Funding Secured” about taking Tesla Private?
Nope. That trial actually went to jury verdict and within 2 hours the jury vindicated Elon. Sadly, Elon was forced to settle with the SEC because his banks threatened to close all of Tesla’s lines of credit which would have destroyed the company. As Elon described it, “It’s like the SEC holding a gun to your child’s head”.
Didn’t Elon lie about trying to help kids trapped underwater in a cave and call one of the rescuers a pedophile for no reason? Nope.
The jury again found Elon innocent. In June 2018, a group of 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped in a cave in Thailand after heavy rains caused the cave to flood. The boys were trapped for 18 days and Elon sent a team of engineers to help the rescue and build a mini sub. A person that claimed to be a cave diver, but actually wasn’t, criticized Elon viciously. Elon fired back with a tweet calling him “pedo guy”. The guy sued Elon and lost in court. Elon was again vindicated but the media never corrected the story so most people still believe he was in the wrong.
Elon inherited all his money from his father who was a rich mineral billionaire. Nope.
Nope. This is completely wrong again. Elon’s father was a vicious terrible person that severely abused Elon. Elon’s father was a failed businessman. Elon’s father was never rich and Elon didn’t inherit anything meaningful from his father other than abuse. Elon fled South Africa in part to get away from his father. Elon, feeling a responsibility for his father even though he hates him and was abused by him, tried to help his father and actually paid him money. Not the other way around. Most people have the story completely wrong and backwards.
On this Thanksgiving 2023, I am thankful for Elon Musk. Thank you, Elon.
I want to hear from you! You can comment below, email me, text message, call me, Facebook, Instagram, or send me messages through my Neurolink. ;)
Impressive write-up! Your eloquent writing style and the excellent points you've raised provide a refreshing and nuanced perspective. The way you've articulated Elon Musk's accomplishments and their broader impact is not only engaging but deeply insightful. It's a rare pleasure to encounter such well-crafted pieces that capture the essence of a subject with both clarity and depth. Thank you for creating an outstanding piece that eloquently explains why Elon is admired by many.
Thank you for this article it's so often the MSM portrays him as a devil hut he really has done more for humanity than anyone