Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[MXWing]

How Rich Is Bernie Sanders?

Sen. Bernie Sanders is running for president again in the 2020 election. Take a look at his finances as he campaigns.

www.yahoo.com

Bernie Sanders is worth 3 million. All of that 3 million is from the backs of tax payers.

He targeted millionaires until he became one himself. Now it's the billionaires he is focusing on. It's a safe hill to die on because he wont achieve that achieve that with the time he has left, and there's only so much tax revenue he he can extract from Elon to grow his own "worth."

This isn't opinion by the way, it's fact.

Glad Musk called him out. Hope people wake up.

TSLA taking lumps on macro green days, I am really shuddering when its a big macro down day.

 

[Krugerrand]

I respect what Bernie has been pushing for, helping the poor, asking for fair chances, universal healthcare, etc. However, I don’t like he has been picking on Musk on every occasion he had. Elon just replied the way Elon does, but I don’t think that might help Elon win the left to buy more Tesla :X

I don’t know what TSLA has to win from these open « you’re still alive? » comments. Hope this make the stock drop more Monday morning for cheaper TSLA. However these stock selling polls and fights must be irritating for a lot of long investors.

As an actual long term investor (coming up on 10 years), I’m neither irritated nor otherwise. Because as an actual long term investor I’m well aware of the company I invested in and the man behind the company.

The fighting spirit of said company and the man behind it is exactly why a) Tesla survived, b) we’ll be saved from ourselves if there’s any chance in Hell, and c) I and many others are monetarily well off.

Sanctimonious twits need not pass judgement lest they be revealed for the, well, sanctimonious twits they are. Weak stomached investors need not own TSLA a single second longer, I welcome your sales Monday morning along with Elon’s.

Elon and Tesla should continue biting, scratching, clawing, and hissing as long as they deem it necessary to reach the end goal. I support them wholeheartedly, even the warts, by holding a duffel bag of shares. Sic ‘em, Elon.

 

[aubreymcfato]

Probably his way of trying to get Bernie off his back and to focus on other billionaires. The more he sells/pays the less he can be targeted until other billionaires, such as Bezos and Gates and Zuckerberg, have done similarly. Cascading effect would not be good for markets, which ultimately hurts the non-billionaire investor class, of which Bernie and colleagues are a part, as well as millions of Americans with 401ks.

But Bernie's tweet was a generic tweet about billionaires (likely pre-programmed by the social media manager, a quick scan of Bernie twitter feed will let you grasp the whole narrative). So Elon's response is unprompted this time.

(btw, I happen to think that more taxes for billionaires is a net good - even if hurts Elon. But it hurts more a lot of huge polluters, and he'll do fine anyway. Science has proved many times that pollution follows money, and money follows Pareto distributions/power laws. So handful of billionaires impact the world as millions very poor people.
(Kudos to him for selling shares to pay taxes))

(EDIT: I knew I was fishing for disagrees, and it's ok. Just remember you can't disagree with the billionaries = heavy polluters equation. For what I know, it's a fact. (and please forget for a moment Elon, he's an exception)).

 

[Curt Renz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1459957656899272713

 

[feigen66]

Democrat is desperately to find the new Trump to boost the mid-term election. Elon is the easy target. We will see the intensity goes up as election near, unfortunately

 

[Lessmog]

Well, it's been interesting, but can we please can the political chatter?

 

[stealthyc]

That's a very interesting tax theory you have presented there behind the spoiler. It meshes well with what I know about how our economic system works but I suspect it's a little more complicated than presented and it comes down to needing to balance the "books". But the general concept makes a lot of sense. Do you have more supporting evidence?

You can read The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton if you want to get a good overview of Modern Monetary Theory, which goes over this stuff

 

[Yuri_G]

This feels like one of those times when Elon has stabbed himself in the leg and is now twisting the knife... I understand his frustration, but he will never appease politicians and selling core Tesla stock was the one thing he said he would never do before he needed to fund missions to Mars. We, as investors, take the good with the bad when it comes to Elon because the good far outways these spurts of erratic behavior. It just sucks when you are watching the slow-motion train wreck and there's nothing you can do but wait it out.

 

[Mengy]

Deal with it. Sounds like you are a prime contender to buy a competitor's vehicle for your next car. The choice is yours.

I hope you don't find my opinion offensive as it's not intended that way. It's more of a first-principles way to look at the problem. Tesla has no reason to deal with such minor niggles - they are spending their effort on much bigger things and it won't slow them down one bit if you decide you like the competitors better. I know it's not a minor niggle to you but the world does not revolve around you. Deal with it. No offense intended. Your choice is to deal with it or go somewhere else. That's just a fact and obviously, Tesla is telling you they are cool with that.

IMO, those who disagree with this don't understand where Tesla stands and where they are going. The customer is not always right nor does it make sense to bribe the customer with free work over such minor things because it's more efficient to offer the customer such good fundamental value to begin with that the customer has no choice but to assume the little stuff.

My three-plus year old Model 3 Performance finally developed it's first dash rattle. And, guess what? I didn't even contact Tesla to ask them about it, I plan to remove my dash and identify the places to stick a little self-adhesive felt to stop the rattle. If I was not mechanically inclined (and didn't want to re-finish the wood dash trim anyway) I would just pay Tesla the quoted $168 to do it for me (that's a very good price, BTW). I would weigh this minor expense when it came time to chose my next car and, guess what, I think Tesla will still come out ahead in value offered.

Don't sweat the small stuff, Tesla is changing the world and they know what they are doing here. Sometimes it's best to leave the old ways of doing things behind when they have outlived their usefulness. The old cliche', "Take care of the customer and they will take care of you" is an idea born from a weak position. If your products are a good enough value you can tell the customer to take it or leave it. We will take care of the big stuff, don't bother us with the occasional rattle three years after the purchase. People who disagree with this are using rigid thinking and are unlikely to change. Let them buy the competitors products.

I disagree with your opinion here StealthP3D. Tesla needs good customer service if they are going to continue to flourish. While I do think a modicum of patience from customers is warranted during this huge growth phase, Tesla still needs to support and maintain good quality control on cars costing many tens of thousands of dollars, well into the luxury car market price range.

I often fix minor QA issues like squeaks & rattles on my own cars too, but that should be a personal choice, not a requirement, when owning a Tesla. In my opinion.

 

[Singuy]

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslainvestorsclub/comments/qtogro

 

[Todd Burch]

What a sweetheart she is.
Tesla won because it's not limited to the geofensed area. Tesla also wins the ultimate challenge because; not limited to geofensed area, has a cost effective solution (no high cost, aftermarket gadgets), and has the ability to scale.

I don’t think Waymos will take the highway either, right?

 

[MXWing]

Well, it's been interesting, but can we please can the political chatter?

Elon started it first!
Or Bernie, depending on your point of view.

In any case my boy getting jumped on by Socialists. Since my money is on my boy I’m dragged into this whether I want it or not.

What they do to Musk and what Musk does to them actually matters to us.

Can’t declare a topic as “political”, bore a hole to China and stick your head in it.

 

[jerry33]

You could request ultra sonic to diagnose rattles if they rely on human ears.

I've found most car rattles are because of things you have put in the car.

 

[StealthP3D]

I disagree with your opinion here StealthP3D. Tesla needs good customer service if they are going to continue to flourish. While I do think a modicum of patience from customers is warranted during this huge growth phase, Tesla still needs to support and maintain good quality control on cars costing many tens of thousands of dollars, well into the luxury car market price range.

I often fix minor QA issues like squeaks & rattles on my own cars too, but that should be a personal choice, not a requirement, when owning a Tesla. In my opinion.

I believe in good customer service, that is not the question. The issue being discussed is whether a minor rattle is covered under warranty three years after purchase. There is room to disagree but my point is not to fall into the trap of assuming the best answer can only be the traditional answer. Tesla will change and evolve over time as the markets they participate in are not static. They will always try to do what makes the most sense at any point in this evolution but don't think the best answer has already been determined once and for all or that it is the answer you are most comfortable with or most familiar with. Consistency is important but should not rule over all else. I think Tesla is entering a period in which maximum growth should be the laser focus. Prioritizing what is more important in any phase of a company is a strength, not a weakness.

 

[Todd Burch]

I don’t know what TSLA has to win from these open « you’re still alive? » comments. Hope this make the stock drop more Monday morning for cheaper TSLA. However these stock selling polls and fights must be irritating for a lot of long investors.

As someone who is already 100% in TSLA, all I see is my portfolio shrinking. It’s not a buy opportunity because most of my life savings is already in TSLA. So yes, it’s irritating.

 

[Mengy]

I believe in good customer service. The issue being discussed is whether a minor rattle is covered under warranty three years after purchase. There is room to disagree but my point is not to fall into the trap of assuming the best answer can only be the traditional answer.

Three years? Oh, I thought this was about rattles & squeaks at delivery.

Okay I kind of agree with you then, three years later should either be a paid service visit or the customer takes care of it themselves.

 

[st_lopes]

The idea that somehow taxing the unrealized wealth (or pressuring them to realize gains early) of billionaires will result in a more efficient use of that capital by government is truly confusing.

On one hand people complain government can’t spend money effectively (it structurally can’t, it’s actually by design, in a check and balance democracy).

On the other they want people who are historically some of the absolute best capital allocators of our time - exceeding 40% annualized returns on their capital spending (benefiting all shareholders AND humanity with the things they’ve created) - to redirect that capital (and it’s future returns) to a far more inefficient and arguably less beneficial outcome to society.

Makes perfect sense. /s

 

[CHGolferJim]

I disagree with your opinion here StealthP3D. Tesla needs good customer service if they are going to continue to flourish. While I do think a modicum of patience from customers is warranted during this huge growth phase, Tesla still needs to support and maintain good quality control on cars costing many tens of thousands of dollars, well into the luxury car market price range.

I often fix minor QA issues like squeaks & rattles on my own cars too, but that should be a personal choice, not a requirement, when owning a Tesla. In my opinion.

In the past 2 months, one neighbor has sold his S, and another cancelled his 3 order, due to their perceptions of customer service.

 

[st_lopes]

In the past 2 months, one neighbor has sold his S, and another cancelled his 3 order, due to their perceptions of customer service.

I’ve yet to have a negative customer service experience with my MY. Maybe my expectations are too low.

Have an appointment this week for tire swaps, winterizing windows and handles, and to check a rattle under the hood (a panel isn’t snapping back in to in place). Let’s see if I still feel the same after that day.

 

[geometro]

Three years? Oh, I thought this was about rattles & squeaks at delivery.

Okay I kind of agree with you then, three years later should either be a paid service visit or the customer takes care of it themselves.

It’s a four year warranty