Elon Musk Begins Hosting 'Saturday Night Live' - As the World Watches 189
This afternoon Elon Musk tweeted a special URL allowing viewers outside the U.S. to simultaenously livestream his 90-minute appearance on Saturday Night Live for the first time in more than 100 countries, starting at 11:30 p.m. EST. The A.V. Club had a sardonic reaction to the livestreaming on YouTube:
Good news for anyone looking at tonight's upcoming broadcast of Saturday Night Live — in which labor-busting vaccine skeptic Elon Musk will be given a platform to broadcast his techno-dystopian brain contents to the world — and thought, "Wow, there's not enough Google involved here." Well, not anymore.
Musk has already appeared in a two promos for the show. (Though CNN quips that the tonight's live show means NBC is "relying on Musk to filter his thoughts in real time, despite little evidence, historically, of him holding back on just about anything he wants to say — even when under scrutiny by federal regulators.") And the rest of the world is getting ready too. While Tesla brought the Cybertruck prototype to its New York City store, Lucid Air made plans to broadcast an ad for its coming 500-mile-range electric car that will compete with cars from Musk's Tesla.
Meanwhile, Bleeping Computer reports that Twitter scammers have been hacking into verified Twitter accounts and changing the profiles to impersonate SNL's, then replying to Musk's tweets with URL's lead to cryptocurrency giveaway scams. "We have determined that the scammers have made at least $97,054.62 over the past two days. The Ethereum giveaway scams also earned them $13,758." And the Dogecoin scammers netted at least $42,456.
And this week Slate also noted a spike in the price of Dogecoin. The joke cryptocurrency based on a shiba inu meme is up — uh, let me check — about 20 percent since this time Tuesday, has just about doubled in price since April 27, and as of this moment is up about 26,000 percent for the year (lol). It's trading around 64 cents as I type this... [I]t's probably not worth overthinking this. We're living in the stonks era. Elon is going on a sketch comedy show and is hinting that he might bring up a dumb digital token that everyone finds inherently funny. Now CNBC is hauling on experts to illuminate what the hell is going on, and members of the financial media are having to write earnest explainers about why you should invest in the dog money with caution, as if a single sane person would think otherwise.
What makes the whole rally uniquely amusing, compared with, say, the rise of Bitcoin, is that it's a willfully dumb affront not just to traditional finance, but also to the broader crypto community — which has, shall we say, mixed feelings about Dogecoin, mostly because they think it makes their project, which they tend to treat with self-righteous seriousness, look very silly... Dogecoin is the, well, underdog of the crypto world, the currency that was looked down upon by much of the Bitcoin- and Ethereum-boosting elite. Except now it has an $82 billion market cap. The dogecoiners — basically the sweet, dumb, bong-ripping frat of the crypto world — find all this hilarious.
So what will happen tonight? Ultimately castmember Michael Che, who co-hosts the show's parody newscast segment Weekend Update, joked that while some of the show's performers objected to Musk's appearance, he saw the selection of Musk as both "polarizing" and "exciting."
"You know, what's funny is that I would say I know about 20 to 25% of the white people that get to host the show anyway. So Elon, I was like, 'Oh, I know who he is at least.'"
Share your own reactions in the comments.
Musk has already appeared in a two promos for the show. (Though CNN quips that the tonight's live show means NBC is "relying on Musk to filter his thoughts in real time, despite little evidence, historically, of him holding back on just about anything he wants to say — even when under scrutiny by federal regulators.") And the rest of the world is getting ready too. While Tesla brought the Cybertruck prototype to its New York City store, Lucid Air made plans to broadcast an ad for its coming 500-mile-range electric car that will compete with cars from Musk's Tesla.
Meanwhile, Bleeping Computer reports that Twitter scammers have been hacking into verified Twitter accounts and changing the profiles to impersonate SNL's, then replying to Musk's tweets with URL's lead to cryptocurrency giveaway scams. "We have determined that the scammers have made at least $97,054.62 over the past two days. The Ethereum giveaway scams also earned them $13,758." And the Dogecoin scammers netted at least $42,456.
And this week Slate also noted a spike in the price of Dogecoin. The joke cryptocurrency based on a shiba inu meme is up — uh, let me check — about 20 percent since this time Tuesday, has just about doubled in price since April 27, and as of this moment is up about 26,000 percent for the year (lol). It's trading around 64 cents as I type this... [I]t's probably not worth overthinking this. We're living in the stonks era. Elon is going on a sketch comedy show and is hinting that he might bring up a dumb digital token that everyone finds inherently funny. Now CNBC is hauling on experts to illuminate what the hell is going on, and members of the financial media are having to write earnest explainers about why you should invest in the dog money with caution, as if a single sane person would think otherwise.
What makes the whole rally uniquely amusing, compared with, say, the rise of Bitcoin, is that it's a willfully dumb affront not just to traditional finance, but also to the broader crypto community — which has, shall we say, mixed feelings about Dogecoin, mostly because they think it makes their project, which they tend to treat with self-righteous seriousness, look very silly... Dogecoin is the, well, underdog of the crypto world, the currency that was looked down upon by much of the Bitcoin- and Ethereum-boosting elite. Except now it has an $82 billion market cap. The dogecoiners — basically the sweet, dumb, bong-ripping frat of the crypto world — find all this hilarious.
So what will happen tonight? Ultimately castmember Michael Che, who co-hosts the show's parody newscast segment Weekend Update, joked that while some of the show's performers objected to Musk's appearance, he saw the selection of Musk as both "polarizing" and "exciting."
"You know, what's funny is that I would say I know about 20 to 25% of the white people that get to host the show anyway. So Elon, I was like, 'Oh, I know who he is at least.'"
Share your own reactions in the comments.
Don't care (Score:2, Insightful)
Not news for nerds.
Will not respond to comments.
Don't post on this thread. Just feeds the astroturf.
Re: Don't care (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Snl has been a lame show for more than a decade.
Only more than "a decade" though? Surely it's been longer than that.
Re: (Score:3)
Might as well give snarky comments. Snl has been a lame show for more than a decade.
SNL has always been very hit or miss with an emphasis on miss, but nonetheless has hilarious sketches every now and again. I've never watched it live because it's a waste of time. I find out what the funny ones are and watch just those on youtube.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Don't care (Score:3)
I hope they have an autopilot joke..... (Score:5, Funny)
Shame (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Shame (Score:5, Insightful)
Elon is pretty smart. He is the sole reason you can buy an electric car from any of the large manufacturers.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Shame (Score:5, Insightful)
But they didn't and he did.
Re: Shame (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
"Elon is pretty smart. He is the sole reason you can buy an electric car from any of the large manufacturers."
Musk is a bit part of that but not the sole reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]. History_of_Tesla,_Inc
Re: (Score:3)
He put his money where is mouth was. In the business world, that counts for a lot. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
if he hadnt done anything, someone else would have.
Sure, after ten years and 50 billion tonnes of CO2.
Re:Shame (Score:5, Insightful)
My impression was that other car makers were hesitant, like: "Sure we can make electric cars, but not many people really want them, and all the infrastructure for traditional cars is already there, rebuilding the world for electric would be a ton of work and a massive expense..."
And suddenly Tesla made electric cars fashionable, which forced the others to go all in.
Re: (Score:2)
And suddenly Tesla made electric cars fashionable
They made them viable which lead to them becoming - among other things - fashionable.
These aren't Apple products we're talking about.
Re: (Score:3)
Others were doing something. Nissan had the Leaf out before even the Model S, and a decade before the Model 3, and at a fraction of the price. They build a charging network before Tesla did too.
Re:Shame (Score:4, Informative)
I love how you start Tesla at the Model S and ignore that they already had an EV out at that time (Roadster, introduced in 2008, vs. the Leaf in 2010).
Re: (Score:2)
The roadster was a toy though, not a daily driver. It was quite primitive too, in terms of the EV tech it had, and not sold in large numbers. It didn't really start the shift to EVs, or hit the public consciousness like the Leaf and Model S did.
Re:Shame (Score:5, Insightful)
The original leaf was a toy. It could barely get anywhere and had god-awful battery degradation.
And there were EVs before the Roadster, too - made in small numbers and in limited runs. The difference was that the Roadster actually made EVs "cool", single-handedly changing the image of EVs from "plucky slow short-range golf carts for dorks" into "sports cars".
If you want to praise up something like the original Leaf, you might as well start praising up the Xap Xebra or whatnot. Earlier than not just the S and Leaf, but also earlier than the Roadster too. Low cost by comparison! A car for the common person, amiright?
Re: (Score:3)
Additionally, MSRP has nothing to do with actual manufacturing cost in low volumes. The EV1 was leased at rate that corresponded with something like $34k, but it would have cost GM something like $70k to make them in mass production, let alone at low volumes. Nissan took many years before they hit even breakeven margins on the Leaf.
Re: (Score:2)
The Leaf was a great car and stood up well for many people. Original ones today still fetch decent prices as the batteries held up reasonably well. The range was limited but adequate for a lot of people and businesses. Everyone thinks they need at least 500 miles per change but Nissan proved that customers would be happy with much less.
As I said, earlier EVs existed but Nissan was the first to make them mass market and build a charging network. They have sold way more Leafs than Model S cars.
Re: (Score:3)
Before the Tesla Roadster, when most people thought of an electric car, they thought of something slow, with poor range, and dorky looks. Tesla showed the world with the Roadster that an electric car can be a high performance vehicle, with decent range, and also be stylish. So while Tesla didn't sell many Roadsters - and I would guess Tesla didn't expect to sell large numbers of them, it served its purpose as kind of a halo car for Tesla to make electric cars be "cool".
Re: (Score:2)
Others were doing something. Nissan had the Leaf out before even the Model S, and a decade before the Model 3, and at a fraction of the price. They build a charging network before Tesla did too.
Shh, don't confuse American nerds with facts. They long to believe that they did everything first - telegraphs, telephones, fax machines, radio, TV, radar, computers, aeroplanes, rockets - those were all first done by Americans according to their books.
Noting that Elon Musk was born and raised in South Africa until age 17, then moved to Canada before finally moving to the US. So ...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
The Leaf came out 2010 and the Volt in 2011. Tesla sold the roadster in 2009.
Re: (Score:2)
Tesla made luxury cars that were priced as such. Nissan and GM made affordable cars that made economic sense for many people due to the fuel savings. Nissan in particular promoted it for business use (e.g. taxis), and also developed an electric van (the eNV200) which proved that EVs could be effective commercial vehicles.
Nissan also built the first charging networks. In the UK they helped fund the Electric Highway long before we had any Tesla chargers.
The roadster was literally a toy, a fun car for the week
Re: Shame (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Tesla made EVs into a prestige status good.
Before Tesla, EVs were seen as products for effeminate vegetarian wimps.
Disclaimer: I am a vegetarian and I drive an EV. But that's just a coincidence.
Re: Shame (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
That one isn't electric though, so I don't know if your same rules apply.
Re: (Score:2)
> He is the sole reason you can buy an electric car from any of the large manufacturers.
Bullshit. The Prius [wikipedia.org] and the GM EV-1 [wikipedia.org] have been around since the 1990s.
Re: (Score:3)
The Prius is a hybrid and if people were clamoring for the EV-1 then why didn't GM build more or some other manufacturer step in?
Re:Shame (Score:4, Informative)
People did clamor for the GM EV1 and GM famously took back the test cars and destroyed nearly all of them. A handful without working drivetrains (and an agreement not to make them driveable again) got to collectors, and precisely one usable one went to the Smithsonian. There was literally a movie about it. [imdb.com]
Hybrids, honestly, aren't that great. They mostly run on the engine, have very limited electric speed and range, and are needlessly complex. All-electric is clearly the way to go.
Re: (Score:2)
Mild hybrids are great. They use very little hardware including very little battery, and still deliver 80+% of the benefits of a full hybrid. In fact they eliminate the starter and alternator, so while they do add complexity, they also eliminate some equipment. If the automakers would get their shit together and make the whole car 48V except for a buck converter for the power plugs, it wouldn't even add a battery. Instead, it would just have lithium instead of a flooded battery.
Full hybrids are dumb. You ha
Re: (Score:2)
GM "believed that electric cars occupied an unprofitable niche of the automobile market, and ended up crushing most of the cars, regardless of protesting customers" (from Wikipedia).
Re: (Score:2)
GM "believed that electric cars occupied an unprofitable niche of the automobile market, and ended up crushing most of the cars, regardless of protesting customers" (from Wikipedia).
I know that. The point is that electric cars were around when Elon Musk was still trying to finger bang the prom queen at his high school.
Re:Shame (Score:4, Insightful)
The point is that electric cars were around when Elon Musk was still trying to finger bang the prom queen at his high school.
Electric cars were around in the 1880s. So what?
They never caught on because they wren't practical.
Tesla makes electric cars that people actually buy and drive.
GM made electric cars to crush.
Re: (Score:2)
Tesla makes electric cars that people actually buy and drive.
So does Nissan [wikipedia.org], and has since 2010.
Re: (Score:3)
Tesla made several significant technical breakthroughs years before any other auto maker. That's the point.
Re: (Score:2)
You might want to look at GM and Ford... https://www.cheatsheet.com/mon... [cheatsheet.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Does he do anything that doesn't involve payments from the government?
Well, he did PayPal.
Re: (Score:3)
Is there any part of US life these days that doesn't involve the government on some level? If we focus on one area, SpaceX, sure he gets a lot of government contracts. But last I read half of the companies revenue comes from private contracts/investment. And at the same time SpaceX tends to provide FAR more that competitors, take the HLV contract, sure it's $3B, but that price is HALF to 1/3rd what the other contractors were offering with MUCH more capabilities.
Re: Shame (Score:2)
And why can't you work from home or take public transport?
Re: (Score:2)
And why can't you work from home or take public transport?
They work at a steel mill and they live outside the city because they don't want to be packed shoulder to shoulder like mice [uptownerd.com] in Universe 25 [youtube.com].
Re: (Score:2)
That's a weird take on the history of Google.
Pagerank was nicknames 'backrub' when it was still a research project, and that turned out to be a really neat idea. Larry, Sergey and Scott then started developing a search engine.
This really started taking off in '98, as the world and dog realized that google gave better results than altavista and other search engines. The rest is history.
You mention marketing people. They came much later. They had success with the search engine long before they started hir
Re: (Score:2)
Sergei and Larry built a search engine based off of there days at Yahoo and hired some really good marketing people.
What? They created Google and tried to sell it to Yahoo for a million dollars, and Yahoo refused. They tried to sell it again later, and Yahoo still refused. It was easily the stupidest decision out of Yahoo ever. (Apparently the idea was that as a web portal that sold ads on its own site, they wanted people to stay on Yahoo; efficient search engines would just get people out of Yahoo faster)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Bill Gates wrote the word processor for the TRS-80 Model 100. In 8085 assembly language.
He's not some 'web brogrammer dude' like a number of his noisy critics.
Felon Musk (Score:4, Insightful)
Elon Musk is really amazing until you see or hear his thoughts on any particular subject.
Re: (Score:3)
Elon Musk is really amazing until you see or hear his thoughts on any particular subject.
Really? Like what? The future of electric vehicle technology, renewable energy, space travel, manufacturing automation, or AI? Because he seems quite insightful and thoroughly informed on all those topics. In fact, I haven't heard him say anything on a technical subject which isn't thoroughly well considered. Are you sure you don't just have some sort of political conflict with him, or hate his wealth?
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, most peoples opinions on subjects they're not well versed on are hit and miss at best. Like doctors "solutions" to violent crime issues, politicians talking about "morality" and actors "answers" to social issues. You can of course have opinions on any subject you wish, but unless you have significant amounts of direct experience, an understanding of the underlying theories, knowledge of the relevant statistics and the ability to survive a debate of some kind against someone with an opposing vi
Re: (Score:2)
People here hate him for some reason along with Tesla and Apple. When Trump hosted SNL there wasn't a thread here with all the comments saying oh fuck that guy.
Re: (Score:2)
People hate Elon because he is an asshole.
He has driven this point home again and again.
It doesn't matter how smart you are, or how good at investing you are, if you act like an asshole, people will find out you're an asshole.
I liked Elon until the "pedo guy" comment. Then I realized... he's an asshole. I'm still impressed with his business acumen, but not with his personality.
Re:What is wrong with the left? (Score:4, Insightful)
Thank you, people seem to forget it's possible to hold two opinions at the same time. I think SpaceX and Tesla are fucking rad and wish them the best in their pursuits and think they are doing important work and acknowledge that Musk has put a lot of his resources and drive towards moving those projects forward.
I can also still think he's an asshole who was born on third and think he hit a triple with terrible takes on all matter of other subjects.
I mean, isn't that the way it can tend to go with these types of tycoons? Edison was a famously gigantic jerk. Henry Ford was practically a nazi. Disney was famously anti-Semitic, etc etc. .
Re: (Score:2)
When Trump hosted SNL there wasn't a thread here with all the comments saying oh fuck that guy.
A thread? Do you mean a discussion? Because I don't see a Slashdot discussion of Trump hosting SNL, let alone a thread under the discussion about fuck that guy.
Did we ever have a discussion about Trump hosting SNL here at all?
Video unavailable (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Tonight’s live stream of Saturday Night Live with host Elon Musk is only available in select countries and territories. U.S. audiences can watch live via local television broadcast or cable provider on NBC.com and the NBC App.
You may have a local streaming option for NBC, but here in Australia, we don't.
Re: (Score:2)
The international streaming link worked here, though I only caught the last bit of it. Which was a bit more of Musk than I needed, but I was curious about the claim of bypassing the national-borders idiocy. So I guess it worked out okay after all. (However, I sometimes watch bits using a VPN.)
Re: (Score:3)
"Video unavailable" in Germany.
So much for the part "As the World Watches"
Re: (Score:2)
Probably not elsewhere in Europe neither, as the same "Private video" pops here.
If you can't serve Europe, what's worth the effort to open to the world? Empty promise.
I'm not sure why anyone cares (Score:2)
Even way back when I regularly watched the show... I generally didn't care who the host was from week to week.
There was a at least one exception, I must admit. I always looked forward to Steve Martin hosting, because his humor was a perfect fit for the show - but that was still about the show, not some cult of personality thing.
Re: (Score:2)
I just looked him up - he's older than I thought! Apparently he was a writer for the Smothers Brothers TV show, way back in the 1960s!
I know that Conan O'Brien wrote for SNL at one point...
Puzzling (Score:3)
What's puzzling to me is why anyone gives two shits about who is hosting Saturday Night Live.
For that matter why anyone gives two shits about:
Celebrities
Politicians
Athletes
The ultra-wealthy
etc. etc.
Don't you all have anything better to do with your lives FFS ?
Re: Puzzling (Score:2)
"Michael Che: "You know, what's funny is that I would say I know about 20 to 25% of the white people that get to host the show anyway. So Elon, I was like, 'Oh, I know who he is at least"
This doesn't sound like a comment a normal person would make about hosting a talkshow. Why is this Michael Che and why is he making commente about skin color of guests? Is he some kind of racist?
Re: (Score:2)
Why is this Michael Che
Because his parents had sex.
and why is he making commente about skin color of guests? Is he some kind of racist?
Skin color != race. Are you some kind of racist?
Re: (Score:3)
Apparently, the world is populated with many small minds.
Why do people not like Musk? (Score:5, Insightful)
Guy is fucking awesome. Unlike most CEOs who only do mundane things that make profit, he's willing to pursue whatever crazy sci-fi ideas he thinks are cool even if they're risky.
He's the guy who's going to lead colonization of outer space, he led a revolution in transportation making electric cars no longer a pipe dream, and he's building brain computer interfaces so some day we can have cyberpunk-esque prosthetics which could very well lead to near immortality.
Re:Why do people not like Musk? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Also, I am a professional railway engineer and aware that Musk hates railways so much that he promoted HyperLoop as a tactic to scupper the Californian high speed rail project, in which he largely succeded. His H-L bullshit even reaches the UK in that opponents of high speed rail schemes here argue that we should wait for H-L instead. Of course those opponents would oppose H-L too, but for them, as it
Re:Why do people not like Musk? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Appearing in a popular entertainment show has shredded whatevever remained of his geek card,
Re: (Score:3)
You do not understand why people would dislike musk?
He called an international hero a pedo. He ignored and downplayed Covid. He fired employees so they would not obtain stock options after working nearly 5 years. He lied to manipulated stock prices(all though I could care less about short traders). He testified in front of CPUC in order to shutdown California largest source of electricity, Diablo Canyon. The list goes on...
And sure he is a rich asshole spending money on good things, but he is still
Re: (Score:2)
I admit I'm not a fan boy, but from what I've heard it comes down to advocating a type of electrical current and "inventing" a ton of stuff that simply doesn't work like earthquake machines.
The world isn't watching...... (Score:2)
don't care - australia isn't watching (don't even think its live here anymore)
"The world" doesn't even know SNL! (Score:2)
How full of yourselves are you?
This is a more ridiculous statement than the "world series".
Not even in the USA anybody gives a crap about Cringy Musk or SNL. Joe Random hasn't heard of Musk, and SNL has been a zombie for what, decades?
That was terrible (Score:2)
here's my 0.02 dogecoine (Score:3)
Wow, that acronym-laden summary is about as rambling and incoherent as any MJ-enhanced Musk interview. Let's see all the issues it gets a stab at:
* Labour relations
* Vaccines
* Google (but the significance eludes me)
* Competition
* Free speech
* Hacking/scamming
* Cryptocurrency
* America's new Offendedness Economy
* Race
did I miss anything? That's "only" 9.
My grandparents emigrated from NS Germany, my parents found themselves under Apartheid South Africa, I spent since 1994 in ANC South Africa - and I believe I have built up a bad case of propaganda intolerance through this generational sensitization. So whenever such a grand effort is launched to silence someone or put him in an unfavourable light, I pay a little more attention to what he has to say. Goebbels' theory has now become counter-productive. Even though I don't have a great liking for American television or American "comedy", so I will probably not watch it directly - perhaps someone will post a transcript, or more likely someone who did watch it will make a meme of the good parts, which will reach me eventually. In the mean time there's more important things to do.
Dogecoin tumbles after Elon Musk calls it a hustle (Score:2, Interesting)
I hate all the cryptoscams, but what an asshole. [fidelity.com]
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The value of dogecoin dropped sharply in early U.S. hours on Sunday, after Tesla chief and cryptocurrency supporter Elon Musk called it a 'hustle' during his guest-host spot on the "Saturday Night Live" comedy sketch TV show.
Dogecoin was quoted as low as $0.47 on crypto exchange Binance, down 28% from levels around $0.65 before the show.
This prick has rabid followers and is in your 401k. Fuck him.
Re:I think the world has broken my brain. (Score:4, Insightful)
In reality you're an idiot and shows survive on ratings.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
This should help you sort things out. https://i.imgur.com/eIXZGM8.pn... [imgur.com]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Really? You think the public at large is capable of understanding and digesting the technological issues we routinely attempt to discuss here?
You think being concerned by the fact you (we) are in a far too small group of people who actually understand that AI is not the bogeyman Fox makes it out to be, Boeing is actually terrible at making aircraft, 5G is at worst inefficient and our leaders are snowblinded by modern tech is enough to push someone into some conspiracy pigeon hole?
My point simply is that it
Re: I think the world has broken my brain. (Score:3)
A global platform? SNL is only vaguely known outside of the US and has been in decline in the US, particularly since the Trump bump subsided. SNL is a backwater compared to the audiences he typically reaches.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm referring of course to YouTube..
Re: (Score:2)
Really? You think the public at large is capable of understanding and digesting the technological issues we routinely attempt to discuss here?
Yes. Is this even really a fucking question? The public at large is generally incapable of setting the clock on their stove without a manual.
My point simply is that it feels weird giving this assclown a global platform
This assclown, as you call him, is continually in the news. He has a global platform already. That's why SNL is interested in him as a host.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Doge is down 24% if you're paying attention.
Re: (Score:2)
People thinking his appearance will push Doge past $1.
Re: Sending the bitcoin bros into a rage (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Elon didn't even like his father and I doubt he received much money from him.
In 1995, Musk, Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded web software company Zip2 with funds from angel investors.[16] They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto.[38] The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages.[39] Musk says that before the company became successful, he could not afford an apartment and instead slept on the office
Re: (Score:3)
Elon Musk took tens of thousands of dollars from his dad's safe without asking for spending money in NYC. His dad certainly claimed to have provided massive investment into Zip2.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
> So he got rich via the American dream.
The "American Dream" is a lie. If you want to live the so-called American Dream, you're better off moving to Canada.A U.S. child born in the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution, for example, has a 7.5 percent probability of reaching the top 20 percent as an adult, compared to 11.7 percent in Denmark and 13.4 percent in Canada [americanprogress.org]. Yes, I know that the Centre for American Progress is a liberal think tank, but the link I provided cites a study done by three r
Re:If it wasn't for inherited Apartheid wealth... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes because the US has a much wide income distribution. Measuring how easily you can move between income quintiles is dumb metric. It sounds really profound until you realize that it would also score the Soviet Union better than any of the rich western countries, East Germany better than West Germany, and North Korea better than South Korea. The score would also go up if the government taxed the crap out of rich people, then simply burned the money.
The real measure of achievement, including the American Dream, is your actual standard of living. There are different ways you can measure that, but at least when it comes to median disposable income [wikipedia.org] the US is doing just fine.
Re: If it wasn't for inherited Apartheid wealth... (Score:3)
You do not seem to understand how this works. Economic status grows across generations. Parents climb, then use their resources to give their offspring a head start.
Many offspring don't climb. So even decline. Parental resources go only so far, as you would see if looking at the lists of wealthy families across the past 80 years. It's easier to blow your chances than it is to use the advantages to progress, particularly if you're a generation removed from the originators of the fortune.
Re: If it wasn't for inherited Apartheid wealth.. (Score:3)
Actually I did have advantages over some people, so what is wrong with that? I also had plenty of disadvantages that statistically made it less likely I would succeed.
What is the solution, comrade?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This kind of sniping is cowardly. Make your claim in the open, in clear terms. State your argument in a way that can be wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
For SNL that's kinda par for the course. Its been mostly cringe-worthy sketches they double-down on for decades. Every once in a while something actually funny slips through.