NPR's operating budget is $300 M, and 1%, or $3 M is funded by federal subsidies
The LA Times calculates the federal subsidies Musk's companies have received at $4.9 B.
Let's be generous and say Musk received those subsidies over a 10 year period, while NPR would have received ~$30 M in subsidies.
4.9 B / 30 M = Musk received 163x what NPR has from "the state."
Who is state funded then?
How are we defining "Musk's companies" how much does he have to own before its "his"? Is one share enough, does he have to own it all?
Why are we comparing all companies where Musk has some shares to a single company (NPR)? How is that a useful comparison.
Even if you replaced Musk's name with mine, and im not particularly rich, this works out. I have a stofck portfolio of hundreds of companies I "own", I am sure they, in total, got far more aide than a single company like NPR....
Look I'm no fan of Musk, but lets stop with this sort of nonsense comparison please.
Ok that seems more fair if we are saying Tesla not "Musk owned companies". Comparing Tesla to NPR seems far more reasonable and useful.
@IsaacOstlund Agreed, a much better argument and worth thinking about framed this way. Thank you.
@freemo this post is a bit old, so I forgot my exact language. Now I see your point and it's really good.
If I drop other companies that #Elon controls and look at only Tesla, it's received roughly 2.8 billion in government subsidies since 2007. Significantly less than the total listed above, but still more than NPR's roughly 45 million during the same period.