this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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Because he has something called "Security Clearance" which is granted to him by the US government, with explicit rules that mean illegal/illicit drug use is one of the top ways to lose your security clearance or never get it to begin with.
It's rather that this is a National Security issue since we're dealing with a foreign-born billionaire who seems to not exactly have a bunch of allegiance to the US.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-pledges-that-tesla-will-uphold-core-socialist-values-in-china
So here is Musk making big deals with a country many consider to be an "enemy" of the US (I don't, personally), and claiming to uphold values that many Americans would define as "not American values."
The point is this is deeply a national security issue, and people who have lost their security clearance for less are pretty up-in-arms about how a billionaire gets different rules because his companies are important to the government.
Why do all these people always defend him under the guise of "Free Market?" Tesla and SpaceX are the recipients of some of the biggest US government subsidies. SpaceX basically wouldn't exist without the investment of the US government. But MuH fReE mArKeTs!
Finally, the jobs are at risk because if they have to remove his clearance, but are unable to oust him from the companies, they may just stop doing business with Musk companies at all, and without those government contracts: 13,000 jobs would be lost at SpaceX. If you look up how many employees SpaceX has, it has about 13,000. In other words, SpaceX would go out of business without the government propping it up.
I mean this is the big thing that baffles me: Elon has ended up privately owning some of the most important public investments in the US. All of the tech originated in academia and it's mostly paid for by the tax payer. Americans are fucking wild for letting that happen and clapping about it.
It goes farther than that.
spacex (and the other "private" space companies) actively poach talent from NASA, JPL, and so forth.
And while spacex is not the only company that were paid by the US government to steal resources and lessen capabilities: It is always worth remembering that musk "invested" because he was pissy that russia wouldn't sell him an ICBM.
There are other companies like ULA, Firefly, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin, and etc but they are all behind what SpaceX is doing capabilities wise, who is doing it cheaper with good reliability. SpaceX did 98 successful launches in 2023. We are currently in a state of transition in the rocket industry caused by SpaceX and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Western Countries lost the use of Soyuz and Russian rocket engines which Atlas 5 and Antares uses). Up until yesterday with ULA’s successful launch of Vulcan, they were the only rocket that currently exist and aren’t Russian and Chinese that can launch at medium to heavy lift capability. Currently everybody else and including the European companies aren’t ready either with their medium to heavy lift rockets. That is the issue right now is that SpaceX currently has an effective monopoly so they have too much sway right now but I’m so glad Vulcan was successful so that can finally end. Even Europe had to reluctantly use SpaceX since Ariane 6 and Vega aren’t ready yet.
The US would forcefully nationalize SpaceX before letting it go out of business because it’s such a huge national security advantage.
I have my dounts about the current government nationalizing anything these days. They just let US Steel get sold to Nippon Steel, which is equally valuable ti national security.
I still don't see how jobs are at risk. Worst case scenario, Musk is forced to resign. Why would it all the other contractors?
My guess is jobs are at risk because of horrible decisions he might make due to the drug use.