Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Since Monday, Tesla has been under pressure from officials in Alameda County to shut down operations of its car factory in Fremont, California, to fight the spread of the coronavirus. On Thursday, Tesla finally announced it would halt vehicle manufacturing in Fremont.
"We have decided to temporarily suspend production at our factory in Fremont, from end of day March 23, which will allow an orderly shutdown," Tesla said in a post on its website.
March 23 is next Monday—a full week after officials in seven Bay Area counties ordered non-essential businesses to close down. To make sure there was no confusion about Tesla's status, Alameda County tweeted on Tuesday that Tesla was not an essential business.
But Tesla persisted. In recent weeks, Elon Musk has been a vocal skeptic of efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. "Danger of panic still far exceeds danger of corona," Musk tweeted on Monday.
Previously:
Alameda County Sheriff Pressures Tesla to Shut Down Fremont Factory
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Saturday March 21 2020, @06:52PM (15 children)
Maybe one day the Musk hero worship will end.
"Danger of panic still far exceeds danger of corona," Musk tweeted on Monday.
That's not your decision to make, Mr Musk.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Saturday March 21 2020, @07:28PM (11 children)
It is not his decision, but that does not make him wrong.
The economy has already gone from bad to borked. Much more panicking and we can just throw the entire economy in the trash. Is anyone going to keep track of those who die because they won't have a roof over their head next winter? There is no good solution here, but there seems to be little regard for balance.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @07:42PM (7 children)
Right you are!
Let's just take all our lumps at once: let the virus run unimpeded and take out the old and sickly; their days of being prime economic contributors are mostly over. After the herd is thinned by the shock therapy, we will be left with a younger population which is always better for economic growth.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @08:30PM (3 children)
I live near a hospital. You would expect to see high amounts of activity and maybe schools being converted into care stations. Like the Chinese building that field hospital. Don't we have the best military in the world?
None of that is happening. We are being locked out of work, people's lives are being destroyed while the government bullshits us with "flattening the curve", yet it's not like we are obviously pulling out any stops to grow capacity and provide care to the people who actually may end up needing it.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday March 22 2020, @02:25AM (1 child)
Wait another week or so. Here it seems it's the community centres first but there is serious talk about using the currently empty hotels.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @01:44PM
"Wait"? I thought we were out of time.
I did see a change now, with the governor's ban hammer, construction activity on their new wing has stopped.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @06:22AM
I figured the over-reation is becuase collectively we all decided we needed a time out from the bullshit. A week or 2 off work, let the "leaders" hang out in the wind instead for a while then a bunch get canned and the rest of us (the essentials) get back to the grind.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Saturday March 21 2020, @09:49PM (1 child)
Typical parrot response. Always thinking in absolutes. News flash: "Not panicking" does not equal "no action". In this case, it means finding a medium that saves as many lives as practical while at the same time not blowing up the economy, dooming us all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @10:26PM
A personal thank you for your measured take on the issue. You put it much better than I could have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @10:26AM
It's actually a great opportunity for Europe to fix their "aging population problems"...
But it's probably a big vote loser if they appeared like they weren't doing anything about it and millions of old people died.
Don't think they could get away with a Stage Four Coronavirus Plan ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSXIetP5iak [youtube.com] ).
The UK did seem like they were trying that plan at the beginning, but the pressure got too high when everyone else and the Queen were cancelling mass events while the Gov was just making vague noises about herd immunity and flattening the curve.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by quietus on Saturday March 21 2020, @07:57PM (1 child)
Maybe the banks, which you helped save, can pitch in? After all, a lot of defaults and they too are back at square 2008.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @06:26AM
I don't think they sold the subprime with the same gusto since then, and a lot of the previous default-risks have defaulted. You're talking about high quality mortgages defaulting. That's a hard thing to fathom...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deimtee on Monday March 23 2020, @03:53AM
The virus isn't going to destroy housing*. If people are homeless that is a failure of society, not the fault of the virus.
*unless it gets bad enough they are burning infected houses full of bodies, and in that case a shortage of housing is a very minor problem.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @08:27PM
Not his decision but it is his opinion. He's entitled to that, same as we all are.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @09:19AM
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/03/21/newsom-says-california-enlisting-elon-musk-tim-cook-for-coronavirus-help-1268647 [politico.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 23 2020, @06:29PM
he's right, and it's not the parasitic government slugs' decision to make either.