Hello dear reader! It has been quite a few days since I have written. I’ve been busy with other pressing matters and now I’m free to write again within my corner of the world wide web. In recent weeks the Space Pirate or the (DOGE) if you prefer has called the poor a parasite on the American People. This statement of course reeks of privilege. He has never had to struggle like the poor do. The advantages he received from his privilege upbringing prevents him from seeing how being poor is a learned condition. It is hard to break those cycles. Children think their upbringing is normal. They are unable to see how other children are raised. This is their reality. To break the cycle of poverty requires a bit of luck, some generous people within the lives of the impoverished child, and a whole lot of seeing what’s on the other side of the street from a child’s perspective that creates a yearning to… be more… have more… or to be satisfied… or to grow… I’m not sure what is the correct answer, but each individual is on their own to find out what their answer is. My answer has always been about growing and learning or to be more…

The poor are not parasitic at all. Personally, I’ve known many families that are impoverished, but their children were loved, fed, cared for, and encouraged. These working class impoverished families never considered themselves poor. They had what they needed, desired nothing extra, and the homes were full of love. They still collected SNAP benefits, received generous child tax credits, and when their children pursued higher education they received enormous financial aid packages. I would hardly call any of those families parasitic. They lived a modest life. Now the Space Pirate on the other hand. His subsidies are parasitic in some ways, and some of them are not. Let’s explore the details and form an opinion. Well, to be honest, I have my opinion already. I just want to share why I have this opinion.

I refuse to use his name. His disrespect deserves none in return. The Space Pirate owns the following companies: SpaceX (founded in 2002,) X formerly known as Twitter (2022,) xAI (2023,) The Boring Company (2016,) Neuralink Corporation (ND,) OpenAI (2018,) SolarCity (2016,) and PayPal (2000.) https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/elon-musk-companies/ He is a lucrative businessman, and with wealth comes privilege.

Various sources report that the Space Pirate’s Tesla and SpaceX companies have received $38B in contracts and subsidies from the federal government with most of it coming in the last five years. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-says-elon-musks-businesses-150042117.html These are primarily Department of Defense and NASA contracts. In the past he received a substantial loan from the Energy Department for Tesla. It was paid off early, but Tesla depended on emissions credits to make a profit (tax rebates.) (also from yahoo.) In another source 25% of Tesla’s revenues were from emissions credits. Over an eleven year period these credits amount to $2B in tax rebates. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/20/business/elon-musk-wealth-government-help/index.html That is a lot of tax revenue being lost for the good of the people. Just so you know, $2B in taxes can supply $50,000 to 40,000 people for a year. $38B can supply $50,000 to 760,000 people. Sure, some of this money is contracted services, but SpaceX and Tesla secure all patents on anything contracted. NASA and the DoD do not. What if those patents were shifted to government control? We would all have access to the technology rather than have to pay huge sums to benefit from it. Isn’t science about benefitting all of society? (idealism) Sure thing, unless you are a neoliberal capitalist. Then it is all about benefitting your shareholders. (capitalism)

What about subsidies at the state level? State level subsidies have a greater impact on the economy of their state and counties. What about them? We never hear or read about them. One of the Space Pirates companies is the online payment app PayPal. PayPal has received millions in tax rebates (subsidies) from Nebraska, and Nevada. Followed by hundreds of thousands in tax rebates from Arizona, and Maryland. With Pennsylvania escaping with tax rebates of $47K over a two year period. North Carolina on the other hand gave PayPal a Grant for $3.73M in 2016. These are state subsidies. That means these states lost large amounts of revenue that could have been used for education, infrastructure maintenance, or other government services. The total subsidies for a cash app company runs to about $18M from the states listed over a twelve year period. https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?company_op=starts&company=paypal That’s nearly five miles of rural highway, or a complete water treatment center for a rural community. It could have been 3600 teachers to lower class sizes in public schools for a year at $50K a piece. All lost revenues from property, income, or sales taxes.

Our next Space Pirate company is Twitter (or X.) Yes, Twitter received a $5.6M property tax abatement from the state of Oregon in 2022 and 2023. Citizens of Oregon all 4.27M of them each had to fork out an extra dollar and change in order to appease a company with operating losses in the billions. https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?company_op=starts&company=twitter Maybe the Space Pirate should sell the social media company to someone else. It appears his splendid personality is hurting the brand at the expense of Oregon citizens. Maybe this is just a tax right off for the richest man who doesn’t pay taxes anyway… I digress.

Onto SpaceX, the glorious privatized space agency that wants to take us to Mars, but they can’t keep a satellite in orbit nor create one that can have it’s software or hardware upgraded either on Earth or in orbit. These satellites they keep tossing up their only have a life expectancy of five years… tops… Texas awarded them with a $2.3M grant in 2014. California gave them nearly $900K in training reimbursements. The federal government loaned them nearly $100M and then there are several “undisclosed” top secret subsidies from Texas and California in 2011, 2012, 2020, and 2021. https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?parent=space-exploration-technologies-spacex This looks good for SpaceX, but what is missing from this source is the nearly $1B subsidy for Star Link that was awarded prior to 2022. Then we have the $800M claim SpaceX feels it brings to Cameron County Texas. https://myrgv.com/publications/the-monitor/2024/06/21/spacex-claims-it-has-800m-impact-in-cameron-county/ One thing I know about billionaires is they sure know how to exaggerate their value. In my opinion high speed internet could be achieved far cheaper here on the surface of the Earth than in orbit, and the infrastructure could be repaired and upgraded far quicker using less raw materials. I feel this would be a better use for grants, tax credits, rebates, from both state and federal sources.

Then there is the convoluted relationship between Solar City and Tesla. In 2016, the year the Space Pirate acquired the company from his cousins, Solar City received a $24.4M tax credit from the state of Utah. https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?company_op=starts&company=Solar+City Various named Solar City LLC’s have been associated with Tesla prior to 2016 and they have received millions of federal grants and credits. A rough guess would place these federal subsidies to these various Solar City LLC’s at close to $110M or more. The list is extensive. The Tesla subsidies at the state level is impressive. Nevada has awarded $1.65B in Megadeal subsidies. New York has awarded a $750M Megadeal. Texas awarded them a $64.5M Megadeal and Oregon and California award tax rebates between $15-18M. The jobs in these states will not create enough revenue on the backside to replace these subsidies until decades down the line. The tax rebates may be easier to absorb, but I wonder what was each state thinking? The state infrastructure construction needs for Tesla to build will already cost millions to provide at the taxpayer dime and then you give the whole farm in exchange for 5,000 or 10,000 jobs. Maybe even fewer jobs. What about water needs for these big plants? This is the Desert Southwest? https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/tesla-inc

Who is the real parasite here? It seems the Space Pirate needs State and Federal governance to operate. Why can’t he survive on his own, laissez faire style? Sure, it means slower growth but it is more stable for the long term. These Space Pirate corporations have grown exponentially on the tax payers dime. It seems the Space Pirate likes the taste of that baby bottle or is it the vein of the American taxpayer? Who is the true parasite? It sure isn’t the poor, but the poor are the ones who suffer the most at his greed. 12.78% of Nevada lives under poverty conditions. That’s about 382,000 people. If we were to give that Megadeal to the impoverished of Nevada each of them would receive a hand out for $4320. Imagine what that could do to help them establish a residence to find a job? Or get needed medical care to avoid underemployment. I prefer social spending over subsidized industries. Shareholders should be the banks of business not the federal or state government. This is the problem with our current system. It is unsustainable. Taxing the rich and forcing economic development to slow down at a more manageable level is safer for the markets and the country as a whole… But greed… greed… greed… The space pirate is never satisfied.

I’ve been working on this singular subsidy case study on the Space Pirate for a couple of days. All of the information here is free. Everything about the US Government is transparent in terms of Freedom of Information. We can get all the information we need with a simple click, except for Top Secret military issues. These companies have been stealing from the American tax payer for years. It is time to tax the rich and end subsidies. They can grow slower, and still make decent coin. But what do I know, I’m just a music teacher… that despises greed… especially when I see my students starving for love, food, basic needs, while a billionaire calls them parasites… It’s time to sink the Space Pirate… fight on friends… Canada and Mexico need us help them with the fight… on it goes…