Three things are no secret: 1) Elon Musk benefits more than any other individual from Tesla’s success, 2) Elon Musk has gotten extremely involved in political matters (emphasis on “extremely”), and 3) many people won’t buy Tesla products because of those first two facts.
New research from JW Surety Bonds finds that 1 out of 4 Americans “avoid Tesla’s technology due to their opinions on Elon Musk.” That’s a full quarter of the US public that won’t consider great electric vehicles, including the best selling vehicle in the world, because of Musk’s highly abnormal involvement in US politics.
Before we get to more of the research, it should also be noted that Musk has been getting more and more involved, including in highly abnormal and extremely right-wing ways, in European politics — in the UK, Italy, Germany, and other major auto markets. Without a doubt, this is starting to impact consumer behavior in Europe as well.
I can’t think of anything else as significant in consumer product sales. Yes, there are some other highly politically engaged business people, but they aren’t so directly involved or tied to significant mass-market products. (I’m not counting the MyPillow guy, for example.) There are founders and CEOs of major corporations who are known political actors, but not so openly and loudly that they draw widely significant scrutiny or tarnish the brand they represent.
The richest person in the world, folks. If most will-paid professionals lost 99% of their money, they would essentially be back to zero. If Musk lost 99% of his money, he would still be one of the world’s billionaires.
He would have thousands of millions of dollars.
Before or after the 99% loss, he could finance his daily life with cheap loans wherever needed. There would be no real effect on his personal life, just on how his professional life and big-boy money score affected his ego.
And yet he fucks around with scamming random followers out of their crypto pennies. That’s hire you know he’s sick or sadistic or both.