Make no mistake about it, Elon Musk built Tesla on the backs of American taxpayers and now he’s thrusting a blade deep into those same backs.
CEO Musk recently announced that the poorly run electric car company will shift its operations by opening a factory in China that reportedly will churn out 500,000 vehicles annually. The deal has obviously been negotiated behind the backs of Americans awaiting the long-overdue vehicles that many put large, pre-production deposits on.
The highly promoted Gigafactory has yet to meet production goals, although Musk claimed it nearly produced 5,000 in one month. What has stunned many American Tesla supporters is the fact that Musk announced in a joint release with Shanghai that a deal has already been struck.
“Shanghai will be the location for the first Gigafactory outside the United States,” Musk reportedly said. “It will be a state-of-the-art vehicle factory and a role model for sustainability. We hope it will be completed very soon.”
The move comes as a slap in the face to taxpaying Americans who footed the bill for lucrative government loan programs and tax incentives Musk relied on to build the company.
Musk Took A Taxpayer Bailout
Consider that Tesla has reportedly lost money for 15 consecutive years beginning in 2003 and running up to this very day. During the first quarter of this year alone, the outfit burned through $785 million in negative revenue of its $3.4 billion war chest. That begs the question: where does the money come from?
It’s no secret that Tesla has taken pre-order deposits on its Model 3. Production has lagged significantly behind expectations, and customers have repeatedly been given excuses about why the cars are late. Musk went as far as to launch a campaign that a single employee sabotaged the company. Such a feat would appear to be a first in the long and storied history of auto manufacturing.
In 2013, Musk garnered a good deal of positive media attention for repaying the $465 million it had borrowed from the Obama Administration in 2010. The money was part of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program signed into law previously by Pres. George W. Bush.
The fund was set up along side the Troubled Asset Relief Program, that bailed out mainstream automakers and others. Tesla Motors benefited from a bailout revenue stream intended to promote fuel-efficient vehicles.
While Tesla was hemorrhaging tens of millions, Musk fleeced everyday Americans by taking advantage of approximately $4.9 billion in tax credits and incentives to fill his coffers. Make no mistake about it, Elon Musk took a taxpayer bailout to get where he is today, and he paid you back with your own money!
Does Musk Owe Working People Money?
Musk has been ready with suspicious excuses when the media shines a spotlight on his unseemly business dealings. After a report surfaced that a Tesla contractor exploited foreign workers by paying them only $5 per hour, he was quick to apologize and claim ignorance.
The cheap labor force was responsible for creating his hi-tech paint facility in Fremont, California. When the report surfaced in 2016, Musk reportedly hauled in a whopping $10 billion in Model 3 pre-order deposits. Expected car owners are still waiting, as are those who were exploited to build Musk’s paint shop.
An attorney for the workers claimed they were owed $2.6 million in wages. Musk’s company issued a statement stating that Tesla was under no obligation to make those short-changed workers whole.
Musk Fired American Workers While Making A Deal With China
Seldom at a loss for pleasant words, Musk justified his firing of 9 percent of Tesla’s staff due to job duplication.
“Tesla has grown and evolved rapidly over the past several years, which has resulted in some duplication of roles and some job functions,” Musk wrote in an email to Tesla employees. “While they made sense in the past (they) are difficult to justify today.”
Musk claimed that the move would only impact salaried workers. However, Tesla also announced an end to its deal with Home Depot to sell solar services out of the chain’s retail stores. Those workers may or may not have jobs waiting for them. But the recent China plant announcement may very well be a more sincere reason why American workers are being abruptly canned by Musk and Tesla.
Let’s face it, Musk scammed the American public, took your bailout money, then manipulated tax credits and incentives. Now he’s shipping American jobs overseas.
~ Conservative Zone
Very typical of a so-called corp. executive who has no idea of how to run efficient automobile manufacturing plant, whether in USA or China. These types thrive on hand-outs, not on production of goods or services. SOP for the incompetent. -CJ Nysschens.
Treasonist bastard! He should be stood in front of a stone wall and shot!
He’s likely a communist plant. Plain & simple. Who is on his lawyer team should tell you something. Check Musk’s complete background, education, travel history, etc. Due your due diligence investigative reporter(s).
musk is a WHORE, plain and simple, will sleep with the one with the most money an leverage to gain, he donated a large sum of money to the GOP, what for, he is not a GOP person , but he is not a demo-crapper either, it just how has the most to share, that he can get his hands on, an there many like him in the USA, RICH MONEY POWER CONTROL WHORES . I,ll walk before I,d drive ride or buy one of his 4 wheel POS
Slave labor. Obama and Clinton love slave labor. These people care nothing about Americans. Greed and world order to control the masses. No more bail outs for big business.
And we have another wheeler dealer con artist like the Clinton’s.Anybody that buys on of hie Chinese mad cars is a sucker.
Elon Musk is a globalist minion!!!
1. Another reason for a minimum 60% federal INCOME tax rate on millionaires and a minimum 90% federal INCOME tax rate on billionaires. Tax away that money so it cannot be used for nefarious activities. (Bloomberg attacks on the 2nd Amendment is a good example why this is needed.)
2. Tax ALL imports from China, Mexico, Bangladesh, India, or any low wage country heavily… Mr. Trump is on the right path but the import duties need to be set high enough to encourage closure of manufacturing operations in China and discourage other companies from relocating US manufacturing operations in ANY low wage country.
YOUR CARS WILL BE WORTHLESS! CHINA PRODUCES FLAWED PRODUCTS. THEY WILL “ALL” BE RECALLED!
He has no idea what he has done to his bottom line.
Th!e taxpayers should demand back every penny that we gave him to start his business!! And put a heavy tax on any cars made in China at his ffactory
If Musk pulls out of the US he should have is POS cars taxed to the hilt if he wants to sell them here. He is obviously a poor business man and should have to pay back every dime he received from the American taxpayer.
I will hope that our country’s president will stop any such deal that this man is doing with China. Also will hope that any such deal in the future will be stopped. We need our country great not another! Lots of people don’t realize that if we are not strong, we will not survive as a great country of wealth and ingenuity.
There should be a 200% tax on any products made in China by an American company who built a factory there. Take away the incentive for that cheap labor!
time to END corporate welfare, period – why should hard working American families pay to sustain a corporation they have no connection to?
let the rich share-holders pay and keep govt out of it entirely
Agree with every statement made here. Boycott his products that always brings them around. NFL, Starbucks, Nestles,Papa John’s, etc all learned very quickly what a loss of public support means.
Well, he better hope there are 500,000 rich Chinese to buy his little battery-powered cars. Any Americans who DON’T cancel their order is as much a traitor as HE is!