Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Opinion | The worst part about Time naming Elon Musk its "Person of the Year"

Opinion | The worst part about Time naming Elon Musk its "Person of the Year"

The magazine says Musk deserves its top honor because of his bold vision for the future. But is it the future we need?

After another year of pandemic mitigation measures, vaccine rollouts and health care inequities, Time magazine announced its Person of the Year for 2021. Last year’s selection of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was, arguably, a snub of the health care workers who have spent the last two years protecting the U.S. — and the world — from 1Covid1-19. But instead of remedying that oversight this year, Time decided to make it much, much worse by selecting the richest man in the world for its 2021 honor: Elon Musk.

Time’s writeup claims Musk is “easily cast as a hubristic supervillain,” but it argues that such a negative framing doesn’t capture how he’s using his wealth and power to reinvigorate the U.S.’s space program and build an electric vehicle company. Like many other profiles of Musk that seek to appear even-handed, the feature outlines some of the challenges Musk and his companies have faced: the lawsuits alleging a deep culture of racism at Tesla, reports of burnout culture at SpaceX and growing scrutiny of Autopilot, just to name a few. But ultimately these issues are sidelined — the price to pay for a billionaire “genius” who is creating our collective future.

The magazine is quite explicit about this. “The man from the future where technology makes all things possible is a throwback to our glorious industrial past,” it states, “before America stagnated and stopped producing anything but rules, restrictions, limits, obstacles and Facebook.” In short, we need Elon Musk to rescue us, regardless of the cost. But is that the truth?



In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Silicon Valley became the beacon of hope for the U.S. economy. Tech’s gospel — “move fast and break things” — was soon applied to any industry with the expectation it would produce positive outcomes. (It should go without saying that the last few years have taught us otherwise.)

After he founded SpaceX in 2002 and took over as CEO of Tesla in 2008, Musk was perfectly placed to become one of the figureheads of tech’s American renewal. He graced the covers of countless magazines, was the subject of glowing profiles and was favorably compared to Tony Stark, the billionaire arms manufacturer and Iron Man superhero played by Robert Downey Jr. in Marvel’s movies. Musk even made a cameo in the 2010 sequel.

Musk was credited with creating the electric vehicle industry, even though major automakers were working on their own electric vehicles and the government was trying to spur Tesla’s growth — including by financing the company’s expansion through a $465 million loan in 2009.

Meanwhile, SpaceX was built on the idea that humanity should colonize Mars, and Musk worked backward from that premise to determine what could make it a reality. In the process, SpaceX has been accused of overworking and underpaying its staff (it settled a class action lawsuit in 2017 for $4 million), and it was more recently accused in a lawsuit of racial discrimination and retaliating against an employee who reported sexual harassment. In Texas, SpaceX has angered some residents as Musk seeks to rename an area Starbase, as he tests rockets for much longer than was authorized and as he has been building next to a wildlife refuge, allegedly without the proper permits. Musk has even been hit with accusations that his Starlink satellites are a form of “astrocolonialism.”

The entrepreneur claims to be driven by the need to “preserve the light of consciousness” by making humanity a “multiplanetary” species. But this is a quest he’s foisted upon us, with little public debate about whether it’s a desirable future or whether this is the right moment to funnel resources into such a goal.

And he doesn’t lack for resources. Even though he styles himself as an entrepreneurial, self-made man, Musk and his companies are the products of vast public subsidies. A 2015 Los Angeles Times article calculated that Musk had benefited from $4.9 billion in government subsidies and that SpaceX had received $5.5 billion more in contracts from NASA and the Air Force. That included a $1.6 billion contract in 2008, which Musk admitted saved SpaceX from collapse. His companies have received much more since then, even though he pays very little tax.

Yet, as Musk’s net worth has soared, he has remained firmly opposed to plans to make billionaires pay a bit more to fund public programs to address issues like climate change and social inequalities. Musk protested plans for a billionaires tax in the Democrats’ legislative agenda this year. More recently, he said the Build Back Better Act shouldn’t be passed, and he has opposed additional electric vehicle subsidies.

Musk says he's against subsidies, but he has benefited from them hugely. He also still supports federal help for space initiatives like going to Mars. While he talks a big game about the “insane” budget deficit, this isn’t principled opposition — it’s an effort to kneecap the competition.

So while Time says Musk deserves its top honor because of his bold vision for the future, is it really the future we need? As the climate crisis accelerates, poor countries chastise the rich over “vaccine apartheid” and longstanding problems arising from an unequal distribution of wealth continue to grow, does it make sense to recognize someone who stubbornly refuses to take his eyes off the stars — all while hoarding a vast fortune that could be deployed to help address those issues?

Time’s decision could be seen as the continuation of a more than decadelong trend of the media’s building Musk up to be our savior. We could also see it as a continuation of the romanticized Silicon Valley narrative that tech will still save us. (Salesforce CEO and SpaceX investor Marc Benioff purchased Time in 2018, and the valley’s power players have been trying to present a renewed optimism this year.)

But maybe it’s not even that complicated. Maybe at a moment when the culture is obsessed with trying to get rich on speculative cryptocurrencies that shift wildly with Musk’s tweets and when a pandemic has exposed our deepest inequalities (and how hard it is to persuade the powerful to address them), declaring Elon Musk the Person of the Year actually makes total sense.

Comments

James Mooney 2 year ago
Musk-hating is a sport of the Weakminded Woke - people whose total accomplishment in life is Nothing or Negative. They will not be remembered. Musk will.
James Pierson 2 year ago
Typical vitriol based in self righteousness, envy and small minded, social "group-think". The Times shows just how low it will stoop to allege inequity, harsh treatment of inevitable disgruntled employees when they refused to align themselves with Musk's mind and body all-consuming work ethic. The man paid more taxes this month than any American in history. His companies take on challenges that even governments dare not tackle. He even has the Russians complaining that he is "ruining" the space launch industry by re-using his Falcon 9. Claims that his successes are due to subsidies are humorously incorrect. The carbon and vehicle subsidies provided by our governments to Tesla did exactly what they were intended to do ie: encourage electrification of transportation. We all breathe cleaner air as a result. Is Musk perfect? ....absolutely not. He is as flawed as the rest of us and he makes mistakes just like the rest of us. A person with Musk's intellect might occur once or twice every 4,000 years. We should grant that maybe he can see futures that we can't see. While living an a 400 sq ft tiny home in Texas and owning no other homes or gaudy yachts, Musk is throwing body, soul, mind and all of his resources into avoiding negative futures that rest of us are unable to see or appreciate. The future Musk is creating with his wealth will stand for itself, by growing stock valuations, his companies will fund millions of retirement accounts, we will drive clean vehicles that can be endlessly and efficiently recycled. Musk disrupts everything he touches, sadly most of humanity is just not bright enough to understand and thank God that he has a thick skin....

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×