The ongoing Elon Twitter saga: "insert demographic" melts down

[dowie]

Richest man in the Worlds company "can't" [won't] fund Starlink anymore because it's cost them nearly $100 million

That's 0.046% of his supposed net worth.

What a great man...I'm sure it's not him being completely petty when they told him to **** off.

I'm sure it isn't too given the request pre-dates that, unless you believe there is a SpaceX time machine?

He gave 5.7 billion to charity last year and he pledged to donate at least half of his total net worth a decade ago.

That 0.046% is roughly like £80 if using the UK median net worth for an individual (£172k), the 5.7 billion donation last year is like an ordinary/average person in the UK donating £4000 (assuming a net worth of say 210 billion for Elon).

Did you donate £4000 to charity last year Vincent?

His pledge in 2012 is currently equivalent to an average person in the UK pledging to donate >£86,000. Most people don't pledge to donate at least half their net worth to charity.

I'm not sure it is directly funded by him though rather than SpaceX (of which he owns just under 50%), it's not really something a private company should need to be on the hook for on an ongoing basis though and there are other (non-billionaire) shareholders + a larger mission for that company. After he made bank with PayPal, his main ventures all have the intention of some greater goal for humanity, he could have happily retired and lived a very sweet life after that, it's not like his personal lifestyle at the moment is likely significantly different as the richest man in the world vs if he'd stayed as a less famous centimillionaire. In fact, if he'd retired after PayPal he'd quite plausibly still be in the low billions billionaire from just passively investing, maybe backing some tech ventures but not actually taking an exec role etc. he'd still be able to buy mansions, fly in private jets etc. but various cool things probably wouldn't exist, including the Starlink service Ukraine is heavily dependent on.

 

[StriderX]

Someone donating half their estate when they only earn 50-150k a year would put a huge dent in their lives and the lives of their children, Musk donating half his wealth... he wont even notice.

 

[jpaul]

Isn't Starlink a product for remote communities w/o the ubiqitous high speed broad band, probably accompanied by exhorbitant data rates .... so loosing money may be unsurprising, it's niche is, disaster situations.

 

[Longbow]

Isn't Starlink a product for remote communities w/o the ubiqitous high speed broad band

Yes, also know as most of the world.

 

[dowie]

Oh I wouldn't be surprised if someone has had a word in his ear saying Putin isn't happy and he's not a man to upset. I can't see even Putin having the balls to go after someone like Musk on a physical level but I'm sure the Russian state could make life hard for his businesses if they put their mind to it.

Would be much harder for them, especially now with Russian visas being watched very closely.

Litvinenko actually met face-to-face with his assassins and knew he was meeting ex-KGB types, the Skripals had their door targeted, Elon likely has plenty of security at his home and bodyguards when traveling etc..

But yes, he has taken on some personal risk in doing this, not something that ordinary donors face.

Someone donating half their estate when they only earn 50-150k a year would put a huge dent in their lives and the lives of their children, Musk donating half his wealth... he wont even notice.

It's a pledge, you can stick it in your will, it doesn't need affect the donor at all though yes it might mean less free money for their kids.

Also, Elon clearly would notice, you don't seem to have grasped the point re: being able to fund new ventures, keep control of current ones etc..

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Isn't Starlink a product for remote communities w/o the ubiqitous high speed broad band, probably accompanied by exhorbitant data rates .... so loosing money may be unsurprising, it's niche is, disaster situations.

He's still building the satellite constellation so of course its losing money. I would imagine its losing money hand over fist but in the end it should offer high speed internet to communities where normal high speed internet just isn't an option. It should in theory bring in lots of money for SpaceX and Musk.

You don't pay for data, its an all in price, that could have course change in the future though.

 

[dlockers]

He's still building the satellite constellation so of course its losing money. I would imagine its losing money hand over fist but in the end it should offer high speed internet to communities where normal high speed internet just isn't an option. It should in theory bring in lots of money for SpaceX and Musk.

You don't pay for data, its an all in price, that could change in the future though.

High speed but still super high latency. Can't beat physics.

I did a remote office building in Market Drayton once and the on-site IT guy ordered a sat link. It was disaster from the get go as latency is like 150ms.

 

[unwashed potato!]

Honestly I think he jumped in without realising the risk he'd be taking putting himself squarely in the Kremlin's crosshairs and now after some time (+threats) he's in a hole he can't get out of

I have come to view it not that he didn't think about going against putin, but more, that he didn't expect to actually have to provide anything. One thing I've learned about Elon over the years is how smart he can be with promoting things that will never happen, to then indirectly promote his businesses.

E.g Where's that affordable Tesla (I forget the model, S maybe?) Where's that cyber truck, Where's that help for the Thailand cave rescue. He jumps in and claims all these things he can and will do, it gets tones of attention, and then never ends up having to actually do anything. That is a genius move on his part that he's been able to identify moments and use them.

Now with Ukraine, the war putin thought would last 5 days. Elon jumps in saying I'll provide Internet, perhaps expecting 10 days later Russia runs Ukraine and Elon has great publicity, and never had to do anything.

Look now at his latest tweet shared above. He's posting like a pressured child "fine, whatever I'll do the thing people are moaning at me about"

Like what people are saying on twitter should care to him. But the publicity was bad (all entirely thanks to him) and so he didn't like that, he just wants good publicity.

That's what I'm leaning towards.

Someone donating half their estate when they only earn 50-150k a year would put a huge dent in their lives and the lives of their children, Musk donating half his wealth... he wont even notice.

It's a good point.

Comparing percentages is not the correct way to try and figure out the equivalent for the general public.

If the general public donated £80k, what they are doing is donating half their ownership of their only home. They are selling their only vehicle, which allows them to work, selling their only TV, xbox, pc, whatever.

Someome donating 200 billion, he remains with 40 billion.

Percentage wise that's a lot, and value wise too, but he'd be left with eye watering amounts of money still.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

High speed but still super high latency. Can't beat physics.

I did a remote office building in Market Drayton once and the on-site IT guy ordered a sat link. It was disaster from the get go as latency is like 150ms.

Was that Starlink? I've seen videos on it where users have been getting 50-70ms pings. Geo stationary satellites do indeed have very high latency because they aren't in low earth orbit like Starlink. When the Starlink satellites start communicating by laser link that latency could drop even further. You could game on Starlink.

Starlink - The Billionaire Elon Musks’ Dream for Broadband from Space is Still in Infancy Yet Gaining Popularity Among Consumers

Frustrated by the existing poor broadband services, the US citizens are eyeing Starlink for better internet connectivity from space. The lack of competition in the US has left the majority of the states with poor broadband services, thus resulting in lower speeds, signals issues and high costs.

www.speedcheck.org

 

[dlockers]

Was that Starlink? I've seen videos on it where users have been getting 50-70ms pings. Geo stationary satellites do indeed have very high latency because they aren't in low earth orbit like Starlink. When the Starlink satellites start communicating by laser link that latency could drop even further. You could game on Starlink.

Starlink - The Billionaire Elon Musks’ Dream for Broadband from Space is Still in Infancy Yet Gaining Popularity Among Consumers

Frustrated by the existing poor broadband services, the US citizens are eyeing Starlink for better internet connectivity from space. The lack of competition in the US has left the majority of the states with poor broadband services, thus resulting in lower speeds, signals issues and high costs.

www.speedcheck.org

Interesting - better than expected. Presumably hit hard by atmospheric conditions though?

 

[StriderX]

Would be much harder for them, especially now with Russian visas being watched very closely.

Litvinenko actually met face-to-face with his assassins and knew he was meeting ex-KGB types, the Skripals had their door targeted, Elon likely has plenty of security at his home and bodyguards when traveling etc..

But yes, he has taken on some personal risk in doing this, not something that ordinary donors face.



It's a pledge, you can stick it in your will, it doesn't need affect the donor at all though yes it might mean less free money for their kids.

Also, Elon clearly would notice, you don't seem to have grasped the point re: being able to fund new ventures, keep control of current ones etc..

Well I meant it in an average person sort of way who isn't trying to create an empire and just wants to live a decent life, but I accept your point.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Interesting - better than expected. Presumably hit hard by atmospheric conditions though?

I would imagine storms can cause problems. Low earth orbit biggest drawback is you need lots and lots of satellites to get coverage as they aren't fixed over an area like those out at geo stationary positions. Musk is talking about 12000 possibly rising to 42000. That is a lot of hardware to get into orbit. Its why Starship is so vital to this plan, it can carry way more than Falcon 9 and can carry Starlink 2 satellites which are larger and heavier than the current version. They only stay in orbit for around 4 years when they run out of fuel and deorbit and need to be replaced.

 

[Penfold101]

Someone donating half their estate when they only earn 50-150k a year would put a huge dent in their lives and the lives of their children, Musk donating half his wealth... he wont even notice.

Tesla would though, as that is where most of his wealth is - it’s the stock price of the company (which is vastly inflated) and has plunged massively since he announced (twice) he was selling loads of it to help fund his twitter purchase. He can’t just give away half his money without destroying the companies that have become successful.

 

[dlockers]

They only stay in orbit for around 4 years when they run out of fuel and deorbit and need to be replaced.

Nuts!

 

[Werewolf]

He has got some incredible advertising out of this. Everyone has heard of Starlink now, before it was just us nerds. Still credit where it is due. I hope he'd keep his mouth shut on geo politics now but there is zero chance of that.

If he/his accountants were not able to make it tax deductible I'll be surprised

 

[Penfold101]

Nuts!

The ISS would do the same if it wasn’t regularly boosted back to a higher orbit.

 

[Rroff]

Someone donating half their estate when they only earn 50-150k a year would put a huge dent in their lives and the lives of their children, Musk donating half his wealth... he wont even notice.

I doubt Elon has 3Bn or so just sitting around - he is likely living off the investment of that money (the rest of his "worth" it tied up in businesses, etc. - he does draw down some money from them but I'm not sure of details). It gets a lot more complicated for rich people - donating half his money would probably have a big impact on the amount he actually lives off - albeit even a huge reduction of that amount he lives off would support a very comfortable life.

The other problem is where do you spend that money and if that person does donate anything of significance to charity that would also be impacted.

 

[dlockers]

The ISS would do the same if it wasn’t regularly boosted back to a higher orbit.

No doubt, but there aren't 42k of them

 

[Penfold101]

No doubt, but there aren't 42k of them

I’d be happier if there was - we’d be a proper space faring world then…

 

[Roar87]

Someone donating half their estate when they only earn 50-150k a year would put a huge dent in their lives and the lives of their children, Musk donating half his wealth... he wont even notice.

If he gave away 50% of his wealth he'd lose about 80% of it