It is not very surprising when companies behave this way. They act in their own interest which oftentimes aligns with employee interests, but not always. I'm pretty sure the only way to guarantee more ethical behavior is to regulate it.
Literally every part of Tesla's business is relying on good will. Employees working hard for substandard wages. Customers buying luxury vehicles and sticking down deposits years in advance. Politicians creating subsidies and buying grid scale batteries. Etc.
It's unlikely that this move (cutting the bonuses of everyone laid off) has saved Tesla more money than this one post hitting hacker news cost them.
This is why I always smirk a little bit when Americans speak out against unions like they actually would have a choice to form a an organization that would take power from the corporations and politicians.
Eh, I don’t know what my point was. I guess I wouldn’t expect a solution anytime soon because it is a power issue.
If WWII is any indication, the Germans would be very good at developing new tech. (They did it during the war)
I believe that the reason why Europe has not had a good chance at a SV:
1. They don't rely on credit for the most part. Using Debit/EC cards are more previlent.
2. High taxes and cheap sources of labor: Most tech is outsourced to Eastern Europe. There is some seriously good talent there, but there's a heck of a lot that isn't great. The treatement of talent is used as a cheap cog in the machine. Hard to hire the best talent when the wages are at a particular level.
3. Strong labor unions and policies: Germany requires companies over a particular size to have representation from the labor force on the board. (This has created the wackamole in companies splitting off)
4. The regulations and monopolies are pretty strong in Europe: it's hard to compete and overthrow say sap or mediamarkt. (Although those are prime for a disruption).
5. Companies play fast and loose there. Due to strong workers rights, they're still playing tricks to prevent people from being full time. (Contractors, probation periods, etc)
Let's take Intel as an example: Intel was founded in 1968 by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. Why do you think there's no European equivalent of those two people? Very possibly because Herr Moore and Monsieur Noyce would have died in WW2 or fled to America. If they had survived and started up a semi-conductor company they would've quickly found themselves unable to compete with the American companies who had the advantage of a massive military budget to win contracts and engineers from.
Your point also don't address the situation in which SV emerged in the US. High taxes? Denmark has 22% corp tax and 52% income tax. Income tax when silicon valley emerged was over 70%.