Perhaps the most prominent case of cronyism in modern history is Elon Musk. A brilliant entrepreneur,
Musk founded the online payment company X.com with profits he made off the sale of Zip2 — another
profitable company and the first online version of the Yellow Pages. X.com eventually merged with
Confinity and became the wildly successful PayPal.
And there were many other successful ventures that made Musk into one of the most successful
businessmen in the world. According to Forbes, Musk is worth $14.3 billion. Much of his wealth is the
result of producing brilliant ideas, creating value for others and revolutionizing the way we do
business.
More recently, however, Musk has used his wealth to invest in space travel, solar panels and electric
cars. There wasn't anything wrong with that until Musk dragged the government into it. Tesla Motors,
SolarCity and SpaceX — a few of his highest-profile projects — have relied heavily on government
subsidies. According to a 2015 article in the Los Angeles Times, these three companies "together have
benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support." And though none of these projects is
profitable on its own, Musk is making a mint.
Tesla secured nearly $1.3 billion in benefits from a variety of sources, including money from Nevada
to set up a car battery factory, federal subsidies through the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced
Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, and a number of federal and state tax breaks for the
purchase of Tesla vehicles (such as the $7,500 federal tax credit and a $2,500 California rebate). Why
would so much in government subsidies go to produce a car that only a few Americans can afford? The
new Tesla Model S ranges from $80,000 to nearly $115,000 before tax credits and rebates.
SolarCity got over $300 million in federal grants and tax incentives, in addition to state and local
subsidies meant to create an artificial demand for solar energy. In a funny twist, the company even
moved in to old office space from Solyndra, the bankrupt crony solar panel company run by large
donors to President Barack Obama's campaigns and subsidized by the infamous Department of
Energy's 1705 loan program.
The Los Angeles Times shed some light on the state and federal cronyism involved in SpaceX: "On a
smaller scale, SpaceX, Musk's rocket company, cut a deal for about $20 million in economic
development subsidies from Texas to construct a launch facility there. (Separate from incentives,
SpaceX has won more than $5.5 billion in government contracts from NASA and the U.S. Air Force.)"
And why are the taxpayers subsidizing a company that specializes in commercial space travel when the
United States has a hard enough time balancing a budget?
The SpaceX website says: "SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and
spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal
of enabling people to live on other planets." U.S. taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for space travel
and other ideas of private purpose that won't benefit many, if any, taxpayers.
Musk is a billionaire many times over. If he thinks colonizing other planets is a profitable idea, then he
should put up his own money. The taxpayers shouldn't be forced along as passengers on his expensive
and risky experiments.