Elon Musk, a multibillionaire who has been dubbed the real life “Iron Man”, is known for many things from being the co-founder of PayPal to the man that wants to go to Mars. Out of all his ventures in land and air, his electric car company, Tesla, has been facing great negative press and drops in stock price.
Although Tesla has been receiving some rough hits lately, let’s start with the most recent event and go from there. On September 6th, Elon Musk appeared on Joe Regan’s podcast, The Joe Regan Experience, where he discussed a variety of topics from the dangers of Artificial Intelligence to the difficulties of running Tesla.
Aside from the lackluster Tesla production, much of the difficulties of running Tesla stem from one of his recent statements on Twitter.
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
While it is legal for a company to shift from being publicly traded to privately traded (or vice versa), it is not so legal to be influencing your company's stock price as the CEO. Here is an article by the New York Times that explains the situation and the illegality well enough to understand what is going on.
So, Elon Musk is already unable to produce the cars that his company is supposed to be producing and now the SEC is giving Elon a subpoena, what else could go in his disfavor? Well, you can have several executives leave the company, which is what happened. Then, in the past few days, Elon introduced a new president.
Skimming over much of what has happened up until now with Tesla, it can be summarized as Elon Musk needs to keep his investors happy or it will mean the end of Tesla. Why is this important or in any way related to our American Democracy class? Well, just this fiasco alone with Tesla has brought in the involvement of the SEC and got the US Air Force to make a statement. Needless to say, there are a handful of government agencies becoming involved.
But, how does this impact the democracy of our great country? Well, it helps to look in the bigger picture and what both Elon and Tesla mean in terms of progress. With Tesla, it is one of the most recognized electric car manufacturers in the world, that's including manufacturers in Europe and China. This is pretty notable considering that China is the world's leading car manufacturer in general.
On top of that, looking at Elon Musk, he's working with SpaceX, a company that aims to bring humanity to Mars and beyond, and Neuralink, a BCI company that strives to unlock human mental potential. Needless to say, Elon Musk is someone that is working on the technology of the future. If we want the United States to stand strong with regard to technology, we need to be on the forefront of what defines the future. With people suggesting China or Europe as other hubs for startups, we have an incentive to bring about innovation in the United States.
I have not been keeping word count and I'm certain I've gone over 200 words so I'm going to wrap up with a question: Is innovation critical to American Democracy?
Basically, is my assumption that Elon Musk's innovation being relevant to American Democracy a valid one?
very nice
ReplyDelete^
ReplyDeleteElon Musk taking a hit is the greatest PR move ever conceived.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the probability that Elon Musk will actually get convicted on a criminal charge as a result of the investigation by the SEC?
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that Tesla was having issues, as I thought their cars were becoming more and more popular now.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this in the news on Friday, but I hadn't really thought about it beyond the fact that he was smoking marijuana, so this helps me understand exactly what happened and what was going on.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand what it has to do with American Democracy. It sounds more like it has to do with American technology and economy rather than democracy itself. I don't think the involvement of government agencies or the technology competition with other countries has much to do with the people of America or democracy.
ReplyDelete@wilson lama
ReplyDeleteThe odds of something actually going through with the SEC is not very likely but it is indeed likely that the SEC will make a statement to Elon along the lines of "Hey, quit screwing around". The more likely turn of events is that Tesla fails production promises (again) or more important employees fall out, which would affect Tesla more drastically.
- jerry 11:37 AM
ReplyDelete@esther
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, I made and published this at three in the morning however it does become somewhat more relevant when you look at the growing state support for innovation in China. China, right now, has several affluent companies and even has their own electric car companies. So, being generous, you could consider this to be a weak cold war (on top of the looming trade war)
Yea, as presented this doesn't really relate to American Democracy. It would have been better if Friday's interview had an impact on the SEC investigation and taht is what you focused on.
Delete@EPEACHEY
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't think him taking a hit after Tesla takes a hit (see what I did there) is incredibly informing but the interview as a whole is an interesting conversation between Musk and Regan. I'd definitely recommend watching it
@Unknown (first comment)
ReplyDeletevery nice comment
"It is not so legal to be influencing your company's stock price as the CEO." I don't really understand why you say it's illegal that a CEO cannot influence their company's stock. I don't think a CEO can influence their company's stock, at least not explicitly. The fluctuations in Tesla's stocks prices have most definitely been influenced by Musk's actions and sayings these past few months, however that is at the fault of investors, not Musk. If people want to fix this issue, they need to detach Musk as the embodiment of the company from Tesla.
ReplyDeleteI think that Elon Musk's innovation and innovation in general are very important to American democracy. Innovations are part of what alter laws/ regulations, especially environmentally in this case.
ReplyDeleteWho would've thought Musk taking a hit which is now legal could effect Tesla stocks which is illegal for a CEO to influence a company's stocks.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is great for the future. We don't need these robotic electric cars in our life. They pose a threat to our society as features like auto pilot car fail and kill human beings. As well as being able to be hacked from terrorists to target running over people. Full electric cars insult the car community and are simply robots. We need to continue driving full gasoline and hybrid cars instead. Elon Musk should be imprisoned for creating the Tesla brand.
ReplyDeleteThere is a very fine line in terms of how much AI should take over in our daily lives. If we enable it to take over too much, we are susceptible to live endangering glitches, and hacking from other nations. On the other hand, innovations in technology allow us to solve problems that we never could before, which benefits American Democracy.
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