this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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How are the jobs at risk? They didn't really explain it.
Look if Musk wants to use drugs then good for him. As long as he isn't hurting anyone then he should get to do what he wants. If he has an addiction he deserves our compassion (even though he may not share that sentiment for others).
If he is making bad business decisions when high that is between him and the board and the free market.
Why do we care about any of this? I can't wait until he isn't in the news every day.
Because he has something called "Security Clearance" which is granted to him by the US government, with explicit rules that mean illegal/illicit drug use is one of the top ways to lose your security clearance or never get it to begin with.
It's rather that this is a National Security issue since we're dealing with a foreign-born billionaire who seems to not exactly have a bunch of allegiance to the US.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-pledges-that-tesla-will-uphold-core-socialist-values-in-china
So here is Musk making big deals with a country many consider to be an "enemy" of the US (I don't, personally), and claiming to uphold values that many Americans would define as "not American values."
The point is this is deeply a national security issue, and people who have lost their security clearance for less are pretty up-in-arms about how a billionaire gets different rules because his companies are important to the government.
Why do all these people always defend him under the guise of "Free Market?" Tesla and SpaceX are the recipients of some of the biggest US government subsidies. SpaceX basically wouldn't exist without the investment of the US government. But MuH fReE mArKeTs!
Finally, the jobs are at risk because if they have to remove his clearance, but are unable to oust him from the companies, they may just stop doing business with Musk companies at all, and without those government contracts: 13,000 jobs would be lost at SpaceX. If you look up how many employees SpaceX has, it has about 13,000. In other words, SpaceX would go out of business without the government propping it up.
I mean this is the big thing that baffles me: Elon has ended up privately owning some of the most important public investments in the US. All of the tech originated in academia and it's mostly paid for by the tax payer. Americans are fucking wild for letting that happen and clapping about it.
There are other companies like ULA, Firefly, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin, and etc but they are all behind what SpaceX is doing capabilities wise, who is doing it cheaper with good reliability. SpaceX did 98 successful launches in 2023. We are currently in a state of transition in the rocket industry caused by SpaceX and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Western Countries lost the use of Soyuz and Russian rocket engines which Atlas 5 and Antares uses). Up until yesterday with ULA’s successful launch of Vulcan, they were the only rocket that currently exist and aren’t Russian and Chinese that can launch at medium to heavy lift capability. Currently everybody else and including the European companies aren’t ready either with their medium to heavy lift rockets. That is the issue right now is that SpaceX currently has an effective monopoly so they have too much sway right now but I’m so glad Vulcan was successful so that can finally end. Even Europe had to reluctantly use SpaceX since Ariane 6 and Vega aren’t ready yet.