of course the Leaf's subsidized, but being Murka and being the Bay Area he has to mystify that: as a CEO and as a techie he has to pose himself that all of these brilliant! BRILLIANT! notions are springing Minerva-like from him alone, that he's THE leader in solving our biggest crises, an Atlas choosing not to shrug: Lockheed, Boeing, United Technologies, Douglas, North American, Rocketdyne, and General Dynamics and all the other aerospace sectors (now being damned as state-dependent dinosaurs) did the same sleight-of-hand
now his real innovation isn't inventing the rocket or the electric car, but mass production, trendspotting, and design features--welding, casting, lightweight materials and new electronics, refining their core product line (Merlin engines, capacitors)
he says "don't go with some statist backwards HSR, try some sparkly new CGI thing!": of course the MuskPod only gives one-tenth the capacity with a pod every 30 seconds (much less if there's any switching), will actually cost significantly more even if it's just Burbank-Berkeley (since the turn radii are wider), and he's already run off to Slovakia to make the "testbed"
he made an off-the-cuff proposal (ripped off from the LaRouchies' ET3 anyhoo) that fit with his persona (and doesn't need his money) because he made a brief statement and then backed and filled as a tech exec always does by going to the consultants and designers to make a brochure: the Bay Area lives on off-the-cuff back-of-the-envelope ideas that "just might work"--and he had to protect himself and his image from being called out on something he hadn’t really thought too much about; regardless of the life the idea's taken on its own, it's really just damage control: that's why he felt comfortable casually proposing to solve both hunger and the Bomb by nuking Mars, since if it gives him any difficulty he'll just dash off a white paper and it'll get wall-to-wall coverage and make Wired readers all tingly
they'll always yell "they laughed at the Wright Brothers" except nobody did and that's the same song and dance PRT and transit monorail and BRT and Skycar hucksters have used to bilk a few billion from investors and Washington: people will do anything to keep steel-on-steel from getting laid down
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