Tesla's new car production is an essential service.
 

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/03/17/...pen-elon-musk/

I agree with Musk for once, but don't believe he should have any special treatment. If government shuts down one, they shut down them all. If the policy of containment has any hope of working, it has to be all hands on deck as any leak makes all the efforts meaningless. Certainly the schools have a better argument than a new car maker. No kids die of this and isn't education more important than a delay in getting your new car?

I worked in factories and schools. They are on the opposite ends of the spectrum for disease transmission. One usually is wearing gloves and other personal protective equipment in a factory or job shop. There may be only a few people working in the same area. In schools there is a constant flow of people and teachers often get sick every year. To hear the media we will die horribly soon if we do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions and build electric vehicles. None of the robots I programmed ever got a runny nose. They need protection against computer viruses.

The factory I worked in had class 10 filtered air, with humidity and temperature precisely controlled to be favorable to the machines. It was a bit hot wearing a bunny suit, which had air filtered so we didn't contaminate the machines.

The breeding ground for germs at the factory would have been break rooms, the hand scanners (though there were alcohol stations everywhere), and the breakroom PCs. I'd be surprised if anyone uses the breakroom PCs now that everyone has smartphones.

Kids must be programmed to spread germs. My dad stopped by to pick the girl up this morning, and I had to pull her finger from her nose.

I just heard on the War Room chat with Stephen Bannon that the EU and Britain have abandoned their "herd immunity" theory that postulates it's best to just let everybody catch the China Virus and then we'll all have immunity. Then came the estimates of massive death rolls, and now they're beginning to close borders like the US has done.

It's easier to think of it on a smaller scale. Say you were a mining town on a remote mountain top. You can't shut down everything around the mine, the schools, the restaurants, the bars, the dentists, etc and then think the mine can continue to operate. The same would go the other way shut down the mine and there is no reason for all the support business. They have to have either extreme pressure on employees to ignore CDC advice and come to work even if exposed or at risk, or they will be experiencing worker shortages. So now the guy normally attaching this part is attaching that part or maybe 3 different parts. Maybe you cut back on some quality control and put those guys back on assembly. Maybe they do close the break and lunch rooms and again that is bad for worker productivity and quality. They also spend all day worried about how they had to leave their 10 year old home alone, etc. etc.

And now that the UAW has said all their plants will close with pay that makes Musk look more like a greedy SOB.

Edit, looks like the Sheriff did shut down the Tesla factory. So everyone else volunteered to shut down and the law had to come in and pull the plug at the gigafactory.

You're confusing ambition with greed.

Musk was already enormously wealthy before putting most of his money into Tesla (and SpaceX), the company he expected would fail. The concept of an EV manufacturing company interested him, and he believed it was a good cause for humanity, and that he was best suited to take on the project.

His ambition makes him say and do nasty things, not greed. He violated SEC rules and paid a huge fine, and I bet he hardly cares about the money.

If it was total ambition it would be directed at a public overall goal. That would mean he would share software, make chargers available to all EVs, praise Porsche when they also make a great EV, things like that. Instead any ambition he shows only aligns with his own power and wealth. In that case ambition=greed. Call it whatever you want.

I call it pride.

Still don't see any evidence of greed, or at least not an outsized amount of greed.

People that think they are amazing want power because they believe they are better decision makers. I recognize this trait in myself and can identify with some aspects of the Trump/Musk personality, which is why I avoid positions of power/authority. I have a low tolerance for weak thinkers that amass into loud obnoxious groups. Someone more level-headed needs to run things because I'm right with Musk on telling the SEC to shove off. Nobody tells me what I can and cannot Tweet, and anyone making financial decisions based on Tweets deserves any outcome they receive.

I actually think greed is great. But I also think if government hamstrings one business or supports another, their little wrench doesn't always tune and adjust the machine but gets dropped in there and destroys the whole machine. So as we don't have a pure free market system I'm willing to shame the gamers. Even if we did have a pure free market system I'd be willing to lay some shame as that is also part of making things better long term. It's like living with racism. I'd rather know up front I'm not welcome is some asshole's restaurant then have the government force them into the closet and end up with me eating their spit or worse. As time goes society will cause that place to fail on it's own because very few people will agree to patronize the place.

Like I said at first I agree with Musk on the overall handling, but if it's a complete lockdown and essential services only, then new cars are not essential and are shut down. Don't want that, don't elect people who will create and wield the power to do such things.