While we're on this off-topic...
The world economy needs a whole lotta disruptions for our species to survive.
Tesla is disrupting Big Auto, Big Oil and (soon) Big Utilities. A little-discussed benefit of Tesla Network and mini-grid batteries (including vehicle-to-grid) will be more financial freedom for many people. When your car and home can generate income, you'll need less from a job. Widespread adoption of these income generators would be something new in the post-subsistence-farming economy, and a baby step toward Universal Basic Income.
SpaceX may be preparing to disrupt Big Media with Starlink. Imagine cheap and ubiquitous Internet service that comes bundled with a Facebook alternative not dependent on advertising (which we know Elon hates). Incentives are important, as Elon says, so removing the incentive to sell audiences to advertisers could change information media dramatically, and hopefully for the better.
That leaves several destructive industries that Elon has not tackled: Big Agriculture, Big Food and Big Pharma. These three horsemen of the apocalypse are interlinked. Animal agriculture contributes more to global warming than transportation, and is the primary source of deadly new viruses and bacteria (bred in factory farms). Roughly 90% of the American diet is animal products and highly processed foods, and this highly unnatural diet is the primary cause of all common chronic diseases and vulnerability to infectious diseases. But Big Pharma is incentivized to promote drug treatment of symptoms instead of dietary elimination of causes, and 80% of antibiotics are sold to factory farms.
Livestock's Long Shadow - Wikipedia
Pandemics: History & Prevention | NutritionFacts.org
US Food Consumption
How Not to Die: An Animated Summary | NutritionFacts.org
Antibiotics in Our Food: What You Should Know | FoodPrint
The result is a population that is tragically sick. Over 70% of American adults are overweight, over 40% obese, and nearly 70% of the middle-aged are taking one or more prescription drugs. The sickness is both physical and mental, since diet affects all organs including the brain. Antidepressant use is up 400% in recent years (to become the second-bestselling class of drugs), and Alzheimer's deaths are up 50%. Yet when a new virus (not the first or last) starts killing the sickest among us (including obese children), governments assault the global economy rather than talk about root causes. Just wait for more drugs and vaccine, says the industry-captured media.
Obesity is a Common, Serious, and Costly Disease
Products - Data Briefs - Number 347 - August 2019
Astounding increase in antidepressant use by Americans - Harvard Health Blog
Prescription Drug Sales by Class - Vaughn's Summaries
Deaths from Alzheimer's Increase 50 Percent | Live Science
What does this have to do with investment? Well, you probably want to live long enough to spend your money, with your mind intact, and have a society to spend it in.
Professor Kant was a product of his time (1724-1804), before computers and robots and AI. But times have changed, and keep changing exponentially. In my vision of a good future, everyone will have freedom to "Do what what you
want to do" (without hurting others) while technology does the drudgery. Technology is creating so much wealth for our species that we should be able to afford Universal Basic Income and a decent life for all. Then maybe the monkey mindset of scarcity and hoarding will finally wither away.
But we need to survive long enough to receive that gift.
If you, like Elon, care enough about the future to want it be good, you can do more than support Tesla. The single most helpful thing you can do for the planet and your health is learn how to eat a whole-food plant-based diet. It's really not tough if you put your mind to it, and the personal benefits can be shocking and quick. Lots of programs exist to help you learn. Just google WFPB.
