Investing in Musk and his companies is probably the best investment ever made by the U.S. government. The government invested in Fisker as well and they went bankrupt and defaulted whereas Musk paid it back early with interest and penalties and as a result was able to create business that employ thousands and contribute exponentially to the economy.
Also, just because an entity, whether it’s a government or a bank “gives” you access to funds doesn’t mean that:
1- they are owed any other conderation beyond repayment of the loan as terms dictate.
2- it’s not a riskless transaction. The government took a risk and was paid handsomely. Musk turned that capital into productive enterprises that generate tons of jobs and tax revenue (all those thousands who are employed by Musk pay taxes too).
Yes Musk became insanely wealthy but it’s not because he was handed some capital. He was made extremely wealthy because he is a talented genius visionary who puts a ridiculous amount of work into his endeavors and he turned that money into productive enterprises.
The issue truly is that for every Musk, there are 1000 others who completely squander tax payer funded loans. If the U.S. government had even a slightly better average return on investment than it does overall, we wouldn’t be in the shape we are in today.
Bottom line is that the issue of Musk being a trillionaire is a completely different issue than the bottom 60% of Americans struggling financially which is a problem. Musk isn’t the problem, he is a big part of the solution. He is a success story.
I am sure Musk wouldn’t have a problem dedicating funds to helping the bottom 60%. I am 100% sure that he opposes giving money to the federal government to then allocate to this purpose. It’s a bad investment. The government has proven to be a lousy allocator of capital. Until we stop squandering resources to fraud, waste, abuse and general incompetence, they don’t deserve an extra dime from the tax payer, even ridiculously wealthy tax payers like Musk.