[ultra_nick]

It's nice that Musk and his companies always seem to be willing to provide free emergency services. Over various disasters they've provided free energy, internet, and cell service.

I can't believe people complain about charity when so many other companies do nothing. Same with Mr.Beast's charity acts. There's something wrong with people who do nothing and hate on other people doing charity.

[h0l0cube]

I think intention matters here. It’s great for those people who are helped by Mr. Beast, but it’s coming from a place of ego and profit, not charity. Happy for those helped, but it’s still a little unseemly.

However, I do think Musk genuinely likes to help people^ (e.g. Puerto Rico and Ukraine), but also I feel his response to the (valid) rejection of his help by the divers in Thailand was ungracious and maybe a little telling. Hopefully he’s grown since then

^ also it’s good PR

[webninja]

The nice thing about being a billionaire is that you can finally care about other things besides making more money. For a period of time, Musk was the richest man in the world. When they drop to second place or below, they have a tradition of saying “Thank you” to the person that surpassed them.

[h0l0cube]

Where else was my comment posted? It's strange that it's still getting replies and likes.

> you can finally care about other things besides making more money

I think his 'philanthropic' efforts pre-date the point where he was the richest man in the world. But tbf, his philanthropy was always tied to promotion of his various enterprises (e.g., deploying free batteries, solar, satellite internet), so it can't be entirely disentangled from his business interests. In the counterfactual where he just had the shirt on his back, figuratively speaking, he wouldn't give it up for someone more in need.

By my measure, he isn't a giving person, but he's always on the search for win-wins. i.e., how can I help people, and grow my business, and build cool shit. Building cool shit is his core drive, and everything else is incidental. Which kind of explains bad business decisions like buying Twitter. Though he hasn't really done anything 'cool' with that – it's more just his curious plaything.

[jrflowers]

> I can't believe people complain about charity when so many other companies do nothing.

It is possible that people are interpreting this 30 day promotional period as “Starlink offers hurricane survivors $120/mo internet access starting November 2nd”, which would not be factually inaccurate assuming today as the start date of the promotion. $120/mo is roughly double the average broadband cost in e.g. the Asheville area.

[mysterydip]

I looked into signing up. It was over $300 up front, after the first 30 days waived. No thanks.

[inemesitaffia]

It's not a promotion or promotional offer. It's an aid for people who have activation issues.

[mlindner]

Starlink service has no contract so you can pause it any time.