No Real Solutions

Capitalism guarantees that we won't solve some of the most pressing problems we face on this planet. Under this failing economic doctrine problems are solved only when there's a profit to be made in the short term. One of the best examples of this sad reality is Elon Musk and his money-making grift of saving humanity.

We could have a long discussion about how the climate panic is yet another false flag in order to control the population with fear, but let's just say, for the sake of argument, that we are about to cross a point of no return, that we should act now and waste not another second before drastically reducing our CO2 emissions. If you're not a believer, I'd ask you to apply Pascal's wager to human induced climate change instead of God. You'd think that Elon Musk is fighting at the front to rid the world of its addiction to fossil fuels; his Tesla cars are proof of his concern for the climate and the environment. We should all drive electric cars a.s.a.p. and get rid of our gasoline-gobblers NOW. Right?

Well, that's not so evident at all. We'll still all have our own cars, which all have to be produced, repaired and replaced; a lot of the pollution related to cars is caused during their production. This isn't solved at all with the electric car; I believe the production of the necessary batteries causes even more pollution. But that's not even that important. The problem are the cars themselves, electric or not. Their heavy footprint on the environment is caused by their inefficiency; I've heard that in the U.S. on average 1.6 persons are transported per car of 1500 plus kilograms. This is the real problem, which not only negatively affects the environment, but also causes traffic jams, rush-hour, parking shortage, huge delays at on- and off-ramps, and so on and so forth.

But wait! Elon has a solution for the traffic jams and parking pain: the Hyperloop. Yep, Elon is the CEO of The Boring Company and gives us a high-speed tunnel complex, several layers deep into the ground, with elevators to bring down the cars, and back up again, and claims it will be capable of handling 4000 cars per hour. A 1.4 mile test-track was unveiled in December 2018, and it all looks wonderful. Watch this short video:

It looks beautiful and futuristic; just what we've come to expect from mr. Musk. But please don't forget that it's not mr. Musk, but his privately owned companies that will be bringing this to realization; they are not here to help us, their only goal is to make a profit. My biggest problem with this whole idea, is that it's yet another pipe-dream obstructing the only realistic solution to all or transportation problems, and that's a good functioning and affordable, publicly owned transportation system with trains, subways and buses; this is the only solution to finally move away from the ultra-inefficient 1.6 persons per vehicle. And mark my words: this Hyperloop idea will die like any other of Elon's grifts. He's very good at generating hype in order to attract investors and fool the government into letting you pay for his toys with your tax dollars.

For traffic jams and rush hour there has been a good solution available for years now, as much of the work we do at the workplace could easily be done at home; we've proven that during the pandemic, haven't we? Unfortunately corporations are already pushing for us all to come back to the workplace, for no good reason at all, and Tesla has been on the forefront of that push with a company-wide ban on remote working:

Office-based Tesla employees must swipe into their workplaces, which registers their attendance. It has now emerged that an automated message is being sent to workers who do not swipe in frequently enough.

“You are receiving this email because there is no record of you using your badge to enter a Tesla facility on at least 16 days over the 30-day period ending on June 28,” reads the message, shared with The Telegraph.

Recipients of the message are reportedly being asked to explain their absence to both line managers and report to a company monitoring system.
_{source: Techradar}

Or what about this cheerful message, sent by Elon himself on 31 May 2022: "Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean minimum) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers." Sure, you can work from your home, as long as it's not within business hours. Letting your workers work remotely is a simple way to reduce CO2 emissions directly, right? So what does Elon's refusal to immediately grab hold of this golden opportunity tell us about his real intentions? Still believe they are to "help humanity"?

Another solution to the traffic jams and rush hour could be for corporations to come together and decide to open and close their businesses at different times, so not all of us try to get home or to work at the same time. But employers don't trust their employees, so they will let us work at home only when they're sure they can keep an eye on us 24/7. Musk will let us pay for his Hyperloop because he'll sell this idea to governments and will be subsidized by our tax-money. Eventually this loop will fail, for many reasons, but our money will be gone, and we'll still not have the public transportation system we need. All we need is buses, subway's and trains that run on time and get us where we need to go when we need to go there. This should not be done to make a profit, but to make our lifes, and the environment, better.

But Elon Musk will never support mass transit or public transportation, even if he launched his Hyperloop pipe-dream as a mass transit project. Elon has a particular dislike of sharing space with other people, which he admitted during a 2017 speech:

“I think public transport is painful. It sucks. Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people, that doesn’t leave where you want it to leave, doesn’t start where you want it to start, doesn’t end where you want it to end? And it doesn’t go all the time.”

“It’s a pain in the ass,” he continued. “That’s why everyone doesn’t like it. And there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great. And so that’s why people like individualized transport, that goes where you want, when you want.”

When the audience member responded that public transportation seemed to work in Japan, Musk shot back, “What, where they cram people in the subway? That doesn’t sound great.” The CEO reiterated his preference for individual transportation, ie, private cars. Preferably, a private Tesla. (Tesla offered those attending Musk's talk the chance to test drive a Model S.)
_{source: Wired}

Elon has no love for humanity, so don't for a second believe you're invited if he ever realizes that colony on Mars. His real motivations are implied at the end there: selling individual cars to individual buyers is more profitable, especially if your customers have to use your charging stations to fill your batteries and have to go to your affiliated maintenance garages for any repairs. Here's yet another denial of the fact that there simply aren't any individual or individualized solutions for systemic or shared problems. To hell with real solutions; they're simply not profitable enough. Anyhow, if you're interested to know why Elon's plan won't work, watch the below linked video. And to close today's post, here's a headline that paints a smile on my face: Luxembourg Just Made Public Transportation Free for Everyone. It boils down to the same thing every time. If there's a problem with the climate, no solution will be found within capitalism. As long as profits are our main motivator we'll keep coming up with ways to make money, instead of finding solutions to our problems.

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