Slashdot Mirror
How SpaceX and the Quest For Mars Almost Sunk Tesla Motors
braindrainbahrain writes: Elon Musk and his rocket company are well known to Slashdottters. This article and book excerpt tell the story of the creation of SpaceX and how it almost sank Musk's other company, Tesla Motors. Musk recalls, "I could either pick SpaceX or Tesla or split the money I had left between them. That was a tough decision. If I split the money, maybe both of them would die. If I gave the money to just one company, the probability of it surviving was greater, but then it would mean certain death for the other company." But then, at the last moment, years of work at SpaceX finally paid off: "[O]n Dec. 23, 2008, SpaceX received a wonderful shock. The company won a $1.6 billion contract for 12 NASA resupply flights to the space station. Then the Tesla deal ended up closing successfully, on Christmas Eve, hours before Tesla would have gone bankrupt. Musk had just a few hundred thousand dollars left and could not have made payroll the next day." Also, it turns out the inspiration for SpaceX was the idea of sending mice to Mars.
How is it legal to not have enough to pay your employees?
Laws vary from state to state. But, in general, companies must pay their employees for time worked. If the company runs out, then principals can be held liable. Smaller company, wealthy principal, employees have a reasonable chance of getting paid, enforced by their state Department of Labor. But of course if what is owed is way more than the principals' assets, then there's not much to be done.
So that's how employees are different than investors, the "corporate veil" does not protect the company owner from liability for their wages.