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Regarding Unions…

I think it’s important to recognize that the Reno Gigafactory was built by Union Construction Workers. Much of the construction/shutdown work performed at Fremont is performed by Union workers. Unions are like any other type of organization, they include both good and bad.

I am a retired member of the IBEW; Union electrical contractors have prospered for nearly one hundred years despite paying exponentially better wages than their non-Union counterparts. The advantages of using Union labor for large construction projects are manifold. First and foremost, since large construction projects staff up and down to accommodate the different phases of the project; Unions provide the ability to supply trained/qualified employees to match the ebb and flow of staffing requirements.

My point is that Tesla is not a strictly non-Union company, they are not UAW. President Biden should take this into consideration.

The UAW is reacting to disruption — just as Tesla is disrupting the automotive, fossil fuel, and utility industries they are indeed disrupting employment. Full Self Driving will disrupt the jobs of Cab drivers, Truck drivers, and Delivery drivers. Tesla factory technologies, processes, and robotics will require fewer and fewer employees as they mature. They fact that electric vehicles are comprised of thousands of fewer parts than internal combustion engine cars will lead to fewer employees.

The UAW and President Biden are taking the traditional Luddite tack to preserve their market share. If I could have President Biden’s ear, I would suggest he read the “The Black Swan,” “The Rational Optimist,” “What Technology Wants,” and “The Nature of Technology.”

I have prospered as a Union electrician, I have benefited from what I consider to be a strong retirement plan. It would be disingenuous of me to criticize Unions. That said, technology evolves; in the end, it will be survival of the fittest. President Biden should make electric vehicle subsidies equitable and hire Andrew Yang as a ”Universal Basic Income” advisor.
Excellent color and valuable perspective relative to Tesla. It's my belief that Tesla's labor workers (on average) are more motivated and productive than their UAW counterparts (on average). Tesla has worked very hard to ensure their labor workers are better compensated than standard UAW workers in an effort to preemptively avoid their labor force from unionizing (which they can do at any time). Tesla's effort and resulting productivity from their treatment of their labor force should be admired, not attacked....which this $4,500 EV rebate that is exclusive to UAW does.

Think of it this way, where is the per vehicle "UAW exclusive" credit where Tesla is better off having their labor force just join the UAW, even if it results in lower productivity for Tesla? Is it $2.5K? $4.5K? $10K? Why are we exploring this? And why would the US taxpayer want to explore this?
 
That's just part of the lifecycle of organizations.
Emjc8BbU0AA28Qg.png


^This chart is for government agencies, but the same pattern exists for private organizations too... just substitute "budget" with revenue/profit.


They start out young and dynamic and eventually get smothered by the internal bureaucracy. Look at Boeing. They built their first 747 in a tent (just like SpaceX) now they are basically a ward of the state (too big to fail). I'd put GE, GM, and Ford in the same boat.

One day it'll probably happen to Tesla and SpaceX (probably after I'm dead)
Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people:

First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

Chaos Manor: The Iron Law of Bureaucracy
 
Tony Seba thinks new car sale will drop drastically starting as soon as FSD is perfected and the robotaxi fleet is running. This is hard for me to agree. I think people will continue to highly value individual car ownership.

View attachment 708392

Here is his talk.
"People" like you.
The largest mass of people that NEED a car for transportation do not want a car versus the money they will have by using an adequate robotaxi fleet.
It is not even a question. Society is brainwashed to believe a car is "Freedonm, Status, Power. blah blah blah." They aren't they are finacial blackholes.

As a side note: The car companies have created a car culture through various fake bullsugar strategies.

An old Example... "See the world today in a Chevrolet."
Here is a good example... (I could not find the one of the six surfers walking with their boards to the waves where the announcer states something the wrong way around like, "Sometimes who you are with is more important than the place."
The question for this commercial is "which is not like the rest?"
 
I dont know if this has been posted yet, but I looked him up and Google said his net worth was $2.1B. If this is true and he follows through on his announcement to buy 1M TSLA worth $735M (1/3 of his net worth), he will be the first degenerate gambling billionaire I know of.
As a poker player, I can assure you a good 30-50% of billionaires are degenerate gamblers. If you follow TSLA and this board you'll see a few of them pop up every once in a while.

Look at all these hedge funds, and even MM's, that have all leveraged themselves so deeply on TSLA/GME/AMC short positions. I guess you could say they're aren't really billionaires because if the SEC and other regulators did their job they'd be broke.

We love a degenerate gambler billionaire here in the US. So much so that we continually buy them back into the game after they go busto!
 
I dont know if this has been posted yet, but I looked him up and Google said his net worth was $2.1B. If this is true and he follows through on his announcement to buy 1M TSLA worth $735M (1/3 of his net worth), he will be the first degenerate gambling billionaire I know of.
yeah but if I was a "multi" billionaire, and I was trying to accumulate a million shares I would not ask the "community" to do so while I was... Let me get my shares AND THEN tell others to buy.
 
We’re up to 18 ships now for Q3. I believe the previous record was 15.


Tesla using an extra port in Europe is a smart move. Compared to Zeebrugge (Belgium) the port of Koper (Slovenia) is closer to Italy, Switzerland, Austria and other countries in South and Eastern Europe. It saves several days of shipping time. The final transport by car carrier or train to the delivery centers is also faster and cheaper.
 
Tony Seba thinks new car sale will drop drastically starting as soon as FSD is perfected and the robotaxi fleet is running. This is hard for me to agree. I think people will continue to highly value individual car ownership.

View attachment 708392

Here is his talk.
I agree with him and have written similar here on the forum.
 
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Triple witching this coming Friday. Max pain has risen to $700. Put walls at 700 and 720. Call walls at 700 and 740.
Stock Option Max Pain
Could end up anywhere between 690 and 740.
Be safe out there.
Just the MM covering from last week's shenanigans should have us at $750 Monday. Are there enough buyers Tues-Fri to counteract triple witching push down? We shall see.

I'm wagering on us touching $780 then trying for $800 this week or next and will lever up appropriately.
 
Tesla using an extra port in Europe is a smart move. Compared to Zeebrugge (Belgium) the port of Koper (Slovenia) is closer to Italy, Switzerland, Austria and other countries in South and Eastern Europe. It saves several days of shipping time. The final transport by car carrier or train to the delivery centers is also faster and cheaper.
Agreed.

Driving east from NL there is quite a lot of car-carrier traffic bearing 3s and Ys.

Passing through Austria and Hungary there are lots of 3s on the road.

The Supercharger network is close to linking up through Serbia and Montenegro into Greece. I caught site of one at Nis in Serbia. The others in that sequence are coming. Italy must be hot.

Dropping an end of quarter ship into Trieste or similar would be a smart move.

The pump priming for Berlin is very obvious.

It is no wonder VW is struggling with ID3/4/etc sales.
 
Just the MM covering from last week's shenanigans should have us at $750 Monday. Are there enough buyers Tues-Fri to counteract triple witching push down? We shall see.

I'm wagering on us touching $780 then trying for $800 this week or next and will lever up appropriately.
I hope you're right, but don't forget CPI data comes out on Tuesday. If the rising prices in my town are a national phenomenon, the numbers are going to be bad. Which is bad for the stock market since that will mean inflation might not be transitory and the Fed may have to raise interest rates before they want to. I think any hint of a down market next week will see shorts piling on TSLA and the MMs having a good quad witching.