|
This is not an investment, it's redistribution. Tesla gets $1.25B from Nevada. That means that the taxpayers of Nevada, collectively, have $1.25B less while Tesla has $1.25B more. Now Tesla may spend every dollar of that money in the state of Nevada, hiring people, buying supplies, making investments, etc. But for every dollar being spent by Tesla, that's one fewer dollar being spent by a Nevada taxpayer into the same economy. Those dollars that would have been spent hiring people, buying supplies, making investments, and so on from Nevada taxpayers are now not being spent on those things. So you can count up all the "stimulus" from the money that goes to Tesla over the next decade, but you're ignoring the money that now isn't getting spent and the jobs that now aren't getting created. Actually, it's worse than just redistribution, for two reasons: 1) It's likely that a lot of the money will not be spent in Nevada, and I doubt anyone is auditing this deal for the next decade to make sure that it is. 2) Before, those dollars were being spent privately by millions of taxpayers who got to decide if the money they spent for X product or Y employee was worth it, and could take individualized risks with their own dollars. But now that their money has been pooled and dumped into Tesla, those taxpayers of Nevada have taken on a substantial risk with no equivalent reward. If Tesla is explosively successful, they don't see any more money than if Tesla just limps along for a couple decades. But if Tesla fails, they've lost it all with nothing to show for it (save for the few people who got a job out of the deal...but there aren't enough jobs at Tesla to compensate every taxpayer in Nevada for the risk). In short, it's difficult to see this deal as anything more than a great benefit to a few people (Tesla investors, Tesla employees, Tesla consumers) at the expense of the taxpayers of Nevada. |