[marcusverus]

>Being public means that Americans can be upset our taxes are going to a billionaire.

The fact that some contractor somewhere makes a buck based on government spending seems like an odd thing to be upset about. The alternatives to SpaceX, BTW, are a different set of contractors who are also managed by very wealthy individuals. So anyone who is 'upset' by Musk getting paid would, presumably, be upset anyway.

The difference is that SpaceX has actually innovated and driven down prices, while the alternatives are charging 10x more for 60 year old disposable(!) tech.

[extremeMath]

This is important because Tesla is a consumer facing company.