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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

>He has repeatedly spoken against spending. He strongly opposes the infrastructure bill. I haven’t checked but the infra bill has an EV section and I suspect Tesla will get infra money.

1. if this was reversed, wouldn't we expect to see headlines along the lines of "Musk spent millions on lobbying for spending bill that will bring in billions for his companies"? Seems like he's going to get flak either way

2. I don't see the contradiction between advocating against a given policy, but still taking full advantage of it when it passes. Suppose you're against a tax cut bill, but it passes anyways. Are you going to forgo the tax cut and give the extra money to the government?

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If he was doing (1) that would preserve his integrity. Sure he’d get flack, but his position would be consistent.

Maybe Tesla had to use the tax money for competitive reasons and under investor pressure, and Musk personally disagrees with the general system of government handouts. Ok I’ll buy that but I haven’t heard such a nuanced take from him.

It’s an absurd complaint.

An NBA coach may not like changes in rules around “traveling” in the past 20 years, but either they embrace the new rules and have their players take the extra step or they just lose to teams that do.

Advocate for the rules you want, but play the game with the rules it actually has.

You start its an absurd complaint, and end with advocate for the rules you want. Which is it?

Advocating for rule changes is reasonable. So is following the rules as they are.

Complaints of the following form are generally not reasonable:

“You advocated for A, but the actual rules are still B. How dare you play as if the rules are B and not A!!?”

How is this comparison remotely similar? In the NBA you’re not allowed to break the rules. You’ll be promptly fired. Is the US govt going to shut down Tesla for turning down taxpayer money?

But I get what you’re ultimately saying, which is what I said — it would be a competitive disadvantage to Tesla if it turned down this money and its competitors did not. So it may accept it reluctantly while disagreeing with the overall handout. Again I have not heard that take from Musk. He just rails against the government.

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