"but if you look at what he has done with Tesla and SpaceX his track record is incredible."
It's amazing what can be achieve in the private sector with taxpayer support.
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"but if you look at what he has done with Tesla and SpaceX his track record is incredible."
It's amazing what can be achieve in the private sector with taxpayer support.
I agree. Many advancements would not be possible without taxpayer support to provide incentives to endeavors that would take too long to initially turn into a profitable business. The trick is working hard to prevent rent-seeking through legislative capture, which most governments are not all that good at controlling. Politicians live off of selling legislation to private industries. I think it is also tricky to gauge certain subsidies. For example, I'm in favor of EV tax credits, because they help offset the artificially low fossil fuel prices. The only reason fossil fuel is so cheap is because private companies are externalizing a lot of cost of environmental and health damage along with current and future damage caused by burning those fuels. If these companies had to pay these costs, we would likely not need EV incentives, because the cost of gas (at least here in the US) would be much much higher. Here in Houston the bill for Harvey should really go to several private industries, including the fossil fuel companies, realtors who got Harris County to take down flood level signs at neighborhood entrances, and developers who fought for less flood abatement requirements.