(Photo
by
Nathan
Laine/Bloomberg
via
Getty
Images)
As
of
late
2023,
electric
automaker
Tesla
had
more
than
140,000
employees.
As
of
this
week,
according
to
company
CEO
Elon
Musk,
about
10%
of
them
are
going
to
have
to
find
new
jobs.
Tesla
last
announced
layoffs
in
2022,
when
Musk
told
company
executives
he
had
a
“super
bad
feeling”
about
the
economy.
Basing
anything
on
Musk’s
feelings
apparently
was
not
as
bad
of
an
idea
back
in
2022.
Musk’s
2022
take
on
the
economy’s
likely
direction
was
proven
very
wrong,
again
and
again,
as
the
economy
has
been
soaring
for
the
past
two
years
based
on
just
about
any
metric
you
want
to
pick.
And
before
any
of
you
who’ve
been
watching
too
much
Newsmax
write
me
emails,
yes,
I
understand
that
inflation
is
slightly
higher
than
it
once
was,
that
happens
in
a
hot
economy
—
you
see,
people
are
spending
all
the
extra
money
they
feel
like
they
have,
which
is
what
causes
inflation.
Anyhow,
Tesla
seemed
to
be
doing
quite
well
until
relatively
recently.
Midway
through
2023
they
were
announcing
record
quarterly
deliveries,
and
the
stock
price
climbed
healthily
on
news
that
other
electric
automakers
were
switching
to
Tesla’s
charging
network.
In
the
first
quarter
of
2024,
however,
Tesla’s
deliveries
fell
for
the
first
time
in
close
to
four
years.
So,
something
bad
for
Tesla
obviously
happened,
and
it
clearly
was
not
a
downturn
in
the
economy
as
a
whole.
Hm,
let
me
see
…
could
it
have
anything
to
do
with
Tesla’s
CEO
buying
Twitter
and
using
this
new
acquisition
to
switch
out
his
reputation
as
a
respected
tech
genius
for
one
as
a
reviled
out-of-touch
right-wing
lunatic?
OK,
let’s
not
overthink
this
too
much.
This
guy
is
the
CEO
of
an
electric
car
company.
As
with
many
new
technologies,
a
great
number
of
people
are
cautious
about
adopting
electric
cars.
Now,
here’s
a
little
riddle
for
those
of
you
who
went
to
business
school:
is
it
a
good
idea
or
a
bad
idea
for
someone
who
is
the
CEO
of
a
company
to
gratuitously
insult
all
sorts
of
different
groups
and
individuals
who
are
potential
consumers
of
his
company’s
products?
But
you
don’t
simply
have
to
take
my
musings
at
face
value,
because
Tesla
sales
have
slowed
notably
more
than
those
of
competing
automakers.
A
number
of
would-be
customers
directly
blame
Musk’s
incendiary
rhetoric.
Musk
is
not
nice
in
his
tweets,
or
eXes
or
whatever
they
are
supposed
to
be
called
now.
It
would
be
like
Disney
CEO
Bob
Iger
issuing
a
press
release
that
said,
“You
know
what?
F*ck
your
children.
I
hate
children,
especially
yours,
because
they
are
particularly
awful.
Children
don’t
deserve
the
quality
entertainment
my
company
produces.”
Of
course,
all
of
that
is
probably
true.
Yet,
most
of
us,
including
Iger,
have
discovered
that
you
don’t
have
to
turn
every
mean
thing
you
think
into
an
announcement
just
because
it
may
be
true.
Musk
has
become
too
rich
and
powerful
to
learn
from
his
mistakes.
If
he
retained
the
business
instincts
and
sense
of
altruism
that
made
him
want
to
run
an
electric
car
company
in
the
first
place,
he’d
realize
that
he
should
burn
X
to
the
ground
then
offset
the
resulting
carbon
emissions
with
a
new
fleet
of
Tesla
robotaxis.
Musk
may
have
the
most
followers
on
X,
but
all
that
makes
him
is
the
biggest
victim
of
an
inherently
toxic
platform.
Well,
if
you’re
one
of
the
more
than
14,000
Tesla
employees
losing
your
job,
really
sorry
you
have
to
go
through
that.
Getting
laid
off
sucks.
Perhaps
you
can
take
some
comfort
in
knowing
that,
when
announcing
the
layoffs,
Musk
did
say,
“As
we
prepare
the
company
for
our
next
phase
of
growth,
it
is
extremely
important
to
look
at
every
aspect
of
the
company
for
cost
reductions
and
increasing
productivity.”
Hey,
“every
aspect”
—
that
means
even
at
the
top,
right?
Maybe
instead
of
posting
more
counterproductive
insults,
next
time
your
former
CEO
goes
on
X
he
will
do
the
bare
minimum
in
showing
a
little
respect
for
the
14,000
plus
people
he
just
put
out
of
work.
Here,
I’ll
even
provide
a
template
for
him:
“I’m
truly
sorry
my
dumb
posts
on
X
cost
all
of
you
your
jobs
—
I
was
wrong.”
