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Elon Musk, an Industrialist For the 21st Century

Posted by Soulskill on from the awesome-that's-the-century-i-live-in dept.

pacopico writes "Elon Musk has just come off a pretty amazing run. SpaceX docked with the ISS. Tesla has started selling its all-electric luxury sedan, and SolarCity just filed to go public. Bloomberg Businessweek spent a few days with Musk and got a look inside his insane factories in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles. It's like Willy Wonka time for geeks. Among the other proclamations in the story is Musk saying that he intends to die on Mars. 'Just not on impact.' Musk then goes on to describe a fifth mode of transportation he's calling the Hyperloop."

6 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. A great lad by ickleberry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fair play to him for building the factories in the USA and not the People's Republic of Communist China.

    1. Re:A great lad by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not fair play - it's required by the government whose teat he's sucking at.

  2. Re:Cool but... by N0Man74 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cool but I don't think it's fair to call him an industrialist.

    So far, none of his ventures have made money.

    I'll accept that critisism as soon as you can explain to me what is so worthwhile about gaining increasingly more value and wealth? He's already rich. Does it matter if he is turning a profit if he is able to continue doing many great things?

  3. Re:Cool but... by Dyinobal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well I'd rather have my stolen money be made into rockets than car elevators for his home.

  4. Re:Cool but... by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, it is 100% correct to call him an industrialist. he IS building industries.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  5. Re:Cool but... by N0Man74 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If he's making money he's an industrialist.

    If he's not then he's a philanthropist.

    I think GP is merely arguing the word choice that's all.

    These two aren't antonyms, nor even mutually exclusive. I would agree that profit-seeking is a nearly ubiquitous goal of industrialists, but that is not the defining characteristic. Being involved in industry is.

    Being an "industrialist" doesn't require seeking a profit anymore than a "business" requires profit. There are certainly "non-profit businesses", and the phrase "non-profit industry" should be familiar to most here.

    Industrialists don't have to be robber barons in order to be industrialists.