beyond a point of absolute comfort, the point of money is to accumulate power and power can be spent to make more money. musk doesn't need more money, he needs more power. dangling starlink to ukraine treasonously is that power that money can't buy but space x can.
moonshots are the external story told to maintain social acceptance. tax credits for spacex would be lot harder to sell to taxpayers if everyone unambiguously knew its just another profit seeking private company. tesla gets a lot of lenience because of its supposed pushing of frontiers.
musk can exchange his social capital to manipulate stocks to make others money in exchange for backchannel favors.
idk if musk actually believes mankind will terraform mars but he sure seems to be getting a lot back on earth from saying it.
moonshots are the external story told to maintain social acceptance. tax credits for spacex would be lot harder to sell to taxpayers if everyone unambiguously knew its just another profit seeking private company. tesla gets a lot of lenience because of its supposed pushing of frontiers.
musk can exchange his social capital to manipulate stocks to make others money in exchange for backchannel favors.
idk if musk actually believes mankind will terraform mars but he sure seems to be getting a lot back on earth from saying it.