By the Daily Post staff
CEO Elon Musk said this afternoon that he’s moving Tesla’s headquarters from the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto to Austin, Texas, where the electric-car maker is building its second U.S. assembly plant, according to CNBC.
Musk said at the company’s shareholders meeting in Austin that he’s grown sour on California, though he plans to increase production at the company’s Fremont plant.
“It’s tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away … There’s a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area,” said Musk, a former Palo Alto resident.
In April 2020, Musk lashed out at Alameda County Health Department officials for keeping his Fremont plant closed, calling their orders “fascist.”
Isn’t the only big-name company to exit the mid-Peninsula. In the past two years, Palantir, Hewlett Packard and Oracle have left the area.
Tesla, when it was in its startup phase in 2009, moved from San Carlos. Tesla leased a 300,000-square-foot building on Deer Creek Road that Agilent Technologies previously occupied.
“If you want to recruit the best talent, it really is smart to be in the world epicenter for innovation and technology — as opposed to headquartering somewhere else and having to import talent,” Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad told the Post on Aug. 18, 2009, when the move to Palo Alto was announced.
“Deer Creek Road in the Stanford Research Park is really like the Park Place address of Silicon Valley,” Konrad said.
Then-Palo Alto City Manager Jim Keene said, “Tesla’s move is another indicator that Palo Alto is the place to be for the green tech and alternative energy companies that will help solve the daunting global environmental challenges of the 21st century.”
“It’s tough for people to afford houses,” said Musk. Perhaps if Musk paid them a decent wage to build vehicles that in some cases cost more than a Mercedes-Benz it just might help his workers afford to own a home near their job. In 2011, German workers for Daimler-Benz were paid on average over $67.00 (USD) per hour, while American auto workers performing the same work were making $33.75 (USD) per hour. That was 10 years ago. Within the context that he uses the word, Musk has some difficulty correctly applying the descriptive political term “fascist”.
Can you provide a credible and recent source for the hourly wages for Daimler-Benz vs Tesla workers? My quick search found comparable wages between the two auto makers. The Mercedes Benz is also a more experience vehicle. That aside, Tesla should move to lower cost and freer Texas where your chances of being locked down are close to zero, the government doesn’t try to run your business, and the workers are allowed to breathe freely – a matter of no small importance to workers.
According to Glassdoor.com, my first online search hit, Tesla assembly line workers are reportedly earning between $20-$26 per hour, $21 being the average hourly wage. This was reported September, 2021. Indeed.com reports it at $19.91 per hour. These are subsistence wages for a qualified German auto assembly line worker in Germany today. You’re right, the government in Texas doesn’t run your business. Instead, the business owner runs your life by paying subsistence wages to a work force that can never achieve middle-class status no matter how hard they work. If this is what is implied by “breathing freely” you may want to re-evaluate your personal work priorities and those of the person you work for. Texas is a right-to-work state for willing wage slaves, and Musk knows this all too well.
California has too many burdensome regulations and taxes which hinder businesses being able to operate fairly. Musk, it looks like, pays his workers compatible wages to the automakers in Germany. In addition, Musk is paying his workers to relocate to Texas. Stop your crying and whining, you crybaby liberals and go back to eating your brie and drinking your expensive wine.
Pre-Tesla, no Tesla Paychecks. After Tesla, Tesla Paychecks. Tesla has the right to offer a wage, workers have the right to turn it down. When a new business is fully established and earning profits in excess of overhead and costs associated to build the business, sure – management should share profit with the workers who made it possible. Tesla is building an ecosystem with lots of debt and lots of capital needed to grow. FB, on the other hand, is the other hand. FB aside, Tesla will do well elsewhere.
Let’s go Brandon!
With that logic it should then follow: Pre-MacDonald’s, no McDonald’s paychecks. After McDonald’s, McDonald’s paychecks. Let’s ask the typical assembly line worker at Tesla if they can carry a home mortgage and a monthly car payment for a new Tesla Model S. There would be no need for profit sharing or even annual bonuses if Musk’s assembly line workers were paid a livable daily wage favorable to other nations such as Germany or Japan. Even Henry Ford proved, over one hundred years ago, that with the introduction of his Five Dollar Day salary, his own assembly line workers could afford to purchase the product they were building at that time. It doesn’t require a rocket scientist, nor an advanced degree in macroeconomics to see how Musk can afford to launch himself into orbit whenever the urge strikes him.
To be employed at Tesla is not a guarantee that an assembly line worker can own a house or buy a house. Maybe the assembly line worker can rent and own a Ford, advance in the company, save their wages, and eventually buy a house. Wealth is accumulated, not instantaneous. Earned, not an entitlement. Some people get rich by taking advantage of others, like Zuckerberg’s predatory FB, but most gain wealth by giving the rest of us less expensive or better designed goods and services. Musk and team proved that electric cars could be successful and rocket ships could be reusable – among many other things. No one gets rich resenting the achievements of others
And yes, pre-MacDonalds – not MacDonalds paychecks
Very well said and displays clear understanding of economics and capital market dynamics…though the last sentence on MacDonalds stumped me.