Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has done it again. On Oct. 15, a Tesla Roadster equipped with cold gas rocket thrusters rose into the air, jumped a line of parked cars at high speed and managed a couple of controlled rolls as it did that before touching down on all four tires and rolling to a stop.
In another demonstration, the car drove straight toward a vertical wall, climbed it until it reached the top, flew off upside down and then used its retro rockets to land gently near where it started.
That deserves some applause, like him or not.
But, George Jetson is still waiting for his flying car. There is no plan to open a stack of flying car lanes like Airliners in the skies over LAX. The car can stay airborne for short periods of time. A practical flying car suitable for ordinary drivers is not waiting for buyers.
But don’t count Musk out. The electric car once seem like an impossible dream. Musk may not have invented the electric car or artificial intelligence, but he had the vision, assembled the teams, put up the initial capital. He was prepared to risk everything on his visions.
Musks visions have included SpaceX with its rockets that launch into space and touch down on landing pads. He has helped pioneer AI engines with Grok and Neuralink, which is testing brain implants for paralyzed patients. Government is not doing those things. Not even large corporations are.
The visionary entrepreneur has always been the strength that pushes our society forward. These people do what they do with a profit in mind. We as society benefit, just like Edison, Ford, Bell and others before them.
It is no surprise that government — with all its resources — has not reaped such benefits. Government has never been the engine of our nation’s prosperity.
But that brings us to Musk’s estimated trillion-dollar fortune? It brings to mind visions of Disney’s Scrooge McDuck tossing gold coins in the air amid mountains of money bags. That image is false.
Musk and other entrepreneurs don’t have checking accounts with as much cash as their net worths might indicate. Musk-owned assets like SpaceX, Neuralink and xAI’s Grok, not primarily cash. That is why I have a problem with those who want to “clip the trillionaire’s wings.” It’s a fool’s errand that will cost the society they think punitive taxation will benefit.
I’m not advocating freedom from taxes for Musk, but a system that seeks to strip him of most of his wealth will only cause him to sell his assets to stockholders in order to pay that debt. In its place will be a SpaceX and Neuralink that are more like General Motors than what America has today.
And if that happens, relegating entrepreneurs like Musk to minority shareholders in companies run by committees, America will be poorer for it.
Vernon Fueston is the News Editor of the Chowan Herald, Bertie Ledger-Advance and The Enterprise. He can be reached via email at vfueston@apgenc.com