Dish Feuds With SpaceX Over Starlink Dishes Being Used on Moving Boats, Cars

[Spurs]

Originally Posted by karkauai

Musk is a remarkable guy who has a condition which can devastate some people, and can lift others to heights unobtainable by us normal folks. Kudos to him for his abilities, his perseverance, his innovation, and his wanting to protect freedom of speech! I'm a cautious fan.

Freedom of speech?
https://www.reuters.com/technology/spacex-fires-employees-involved-letter-rebuking-musk-nyt-2022-06-17/

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Jdege

You mean like providing reliable online financial services, electric cars, satellite internet, etc.?

Originally Posted by lestersails

...Now - if only Musk would understand this and give something back...

Originally Posted by Jdege

You mean like providing reliable online financial services, electric cars, satellite internet, etc.?

Elon Musk has never been a big charitable donor, relative to his astronomical net worth. Musk [and Jeff Bezos] have donated less than 1% of their net worth, whereas Warren Buffett, and George Soros, had given away more than 20% by early September, 2021, according to business magazine Forbes.

Elon Musk signed the Giving Pledge, in 2012, committing to give a majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes, but a 2021 Vox article estimated that he had given just 0.05 percent, of his then-net worth, to charity.

A regulatory filing [1], in mid-February 2022, disclosed that Musk, had earmarked $5.7 billion worth of his Tesla shares, for charity, in late November, 2021.
On paper, his $5.7 billion donation would move Musk up the ranks, of the country’s most generous philanthropists in 2021 [second only to the $15 billion donated Gates foundation, last year]. The filing did not name the recipient(s), if any, of the shares.

Nobody knows how Musk intends to use [or not] that money, but the speculation is that the money landed in a donor-advised fund [DAF], which behaves like a philanthropic bank account. DAFs are essentially black boxes, since they don’t carry specific requirements, like [any] annual distributions, or public disclosures of grants, tied to a specific donor. Money can sit in DAFs forever, without going to an operating nonprofit group, and also allow foundations to circumvent a requirement, to send 5 percent of their assets elsewhere, every year.

A DAF donation would allow him to claim a tax deduction of as much as 30% of his 2021 adjusted gross income [as soon as he makes the donation], even though the shares are sitting in the equivalent of a philanthropic holding tank [conceivably forever], instead of 20%, if he had donated it, instead, to his foundation [2]. Musk could also deduct the fair market value of the stock, instead of its original value.

[1] Musk’s SEC Filing ➥ https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/d...45X03/doc5.xml

[2] Musk Foundation ➥ Musk Foundation
(not a joke - that's it)

[SV Tom Crean]

Originally Posted by Spurs

Freedom of speech?
https://www.reuters.com/technology/s...yt-2022-06-17/

The employees in my company have freedom of speech once outside of work. But on company time, using company resources that freedom of speech no longer holds.

[Rumrace]

There is some real clarity in freedom of speech if you’re Canadian and take the time to read the freedom and rights act 1982. Takes all that constitutional Latin into laymen language.
Clearly many people in rural areas are being left behind or limited by technology leaving them behind.
Corporate responsibility, client confidential information has nothing to do with limiting your freedom.
Misinformation needs to be exposed as much real information. Idiots have equal rights.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Elon Musk has never been a big charitable donor...

While I'm not Musk fan boy, I feel like we should give him a pass on this.

Arguably, his businesses do a lot to advance the human condition. PayPal broke down barriers that each of us benefit from every day. Tesla advanced our movement away from fossil fuels and woke up the entire auto industry to prove electric vehicles are possible and marketable. Making affordable, high-speed internet available to remote locations (never mind us cruisers!) is already changing lives for the better.

Laying the foundation for making humanity a multi-planet species may be the single biggest charitable contribution of all time, if there's an asteroid out there with our name on it.

You don't have to believe in all these causes, but you have to admit that Musk does, and he's risked everything, more than once, to make them happen.

What did Gates do? He got lucky and sold a program to IBM. He didn't even write the program. He spent decades squeezing every dime he could out of customers, without doing any real innovation. The story is the same for just about every other multi-billionaire. Good parents or good luck, ruthless money-grabbing. No concern for others, or for society. Until they get older and start to think about their "legacy."

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

While I'm not Musk fan boy, I feel like we should give him a pass on this...
... What did Gates do? He got lucky and sold a program to IBM...

Q: What do Bill Gates and Elon Musk have in common?
A: They both broke windows, live, on stage.

[Spurs]

Originally Posted by SV Tom Crean

The employees in my company have freedom of speech once outside of work. But on company time, using company resources that freedom of speech no longer holds.

You are certainly entitled to run your company as you see fit, but that would not be how you run a company if you want to be regarded as an advocate of freedom of speech, which was what I was commenting on.

My employees can say whatever they like - within reason - as long as they get the work done...

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by SV Tom Crean

The employees in my company have freedom of speech once outside of work. But on company time, using company resources that freedom of speech no longer holds.

Oh it still exists but may come with ramifications

[SV Tom Crean]

Originally Posted by Spurs

You are certainly entitled to run your company as you see fit, but that would not be how you run a company if you want to be regarded as an advocate of freedom of speech, which was what I was commenting on.

My employees can say whatever they like - within reason - as long as they get the work done...

Well my point was that SpaceX didn’t fire them over freedom of speech. They were fired for using company resources and time to further their cause - ie they sent out an email to a couple of thousand employees using the company servers, and followed up with more emails when people didn’t respond. I understand people have causes (and I’ve supported many) but using company resources to further that cause is where I (and SpaceX) draw the line.

Now if the employees and the business both agree on some action and ok the use of company time and resources, that’s perfectly fine by me.

[Warren149]

Originally Posted by Jdege

Dish Feuds With SpaceX Over Starlink Dishes Being Used on Moving Boats, Cars
Dish Network claims SpaceX violates FCC rules by tacitly encouraging users to use Starlink dishes on moving vehicles when it doesn't have clearance to do so.

I've seen discussions concerning using SpaceX on boats, and never a mention of FCC rules.

This is a similar argument that came up when the likes of Uber/Lyft bypassed taxi licensing system. For the poor sods that had paid huge sum on money they were quite properly put out . Why should you not have to comply with agreed to regulation just because you invent a new technology that you think by passes the system?

[crayiii]

Originally Posted by Warren149

This is a similar argument that came up when the likes of Uber/Lyft bypassed taxi licensing system. For the poor sods that had paid huge sum on money they were quite properly put out . Why should you not have to comply with agreed to regulation just because you invent a new technology that you think by passes the system?

Because the system was a corrupt money grab that was taking advantage of people.

[Warren149]

Originally Posted by crayiii

Because the system was a corrupt money grab that was taking advantage of people.

We don’t know whether it was corrupt but it was a system that we had worked well for many years.
We can’t just pick and choose the regulations that we want to comply with if we were to do that we would have Anarchy.
If you don’t like the system then work within it to change it.

[crayiii]

Originally Posted by Warren149

We don’t know whether it was corrupt but it was a system that we had worked well for many years.
We can’t just pick and choose the regulations that we want to comply with if we were to do that we would have Anarchy.
If you don’t like the system then work within it to change it.

Yeah, just like Uber and Lyft did.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Warren149

We don’t know whether it was corrupt but it was a system that we had worked well for many years.

Yes, we do know it's corrupt. And "working well" for the political insiders that run it is bug, not a feature.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by SV Tom Crean

Well my point was that SpaceX didn’t fire them over freedom of speech. They were fired for using company resources and time to further their cause - ie they sent out an email to a couple of thousand employees using the company servers, and followed up with more emails when people didn’t respond. I understand people have causes (and I’ve supported many) but using company resources to further that cause is where I (and SpaceX) draw the line....

Exactly. I work for two organizations, and both of them make it very clear about using organization assets for non work related purposes. The penalty for failing to follow policy includes being fired. It is not really complicated.

For both organizations, there is a limitation of what I can, and cannot do, or say, outside of "work." One organization is like many others in US that one can get away with quite a bit outside of work but there are lines that cannot be crossed without putting one's job on the line. The other organization is quite a bit different and more limiting.

Later,
Dan