It’s fair to say that Tesla isn’t doing so well. Thanks to an ageing lineup and a ket-fuelled, government-destroying, Nazi-saluting CEO, Tesla sales are plummeting across the entire globe. Their revolutionary 4680 battery has failed to materialise and is now obsolete. Their Cybertruck is such a sales flop that they are already pulling its manufacturing capacity. Thanks to Musk’s dogmatic “vision only” approach to self-driving, Tesla FSD is far from being an industry leader and miles away from being functionally safe. As a result, Tesla’s Cybercab and self-driving revolution is now all but confirmed as vapourware. Everything that once made Tesla one of the highest-valued companies is falling apart. It looks like Tesla is spiralling towards death. But can such a giant really die? Oh yes, and this is how.
Let’s start with the reality of Tesla.
In 2024, Tesla’s annual net income was only $12.6 billion (though some sources put it as low as $7 billion). The vast majority of this was from their car sales. However, as of the time of writing, Tesla is valued at $852.43 billion! That means its P/E ratio (a ratio of company value to its net income, used to determine if the company is over or undervalued) is a staggering 67.65!
Let’s compare that to Toyota. They are far larger than Tesla and have far more impactful upcoming EV and self-driving technology than Tesla. Last financial year, their net income was a massive $29 billion! However, they have a much more realistic value of $243.56 billion, giving them a P/E ratio of 8.40, which is close to the average for the automotive world.
By comparison, Tesla’s value makes no sense. It offers nothing that Toyota doesn’t also offer. The only reason Tesla is so stupidly valuable is because it is treated as a speculative meme stock.
I thought the world needed a map of the Log Homes of Albany County. So I made one up. Some of these are probably a bit fancier then just a log cabin in the woods. Notice how in more built up areas, log homes are uncommon -- it's a style more popular in rural areas.
When people think about what things cause harm to the environment they think of many things. They think of tall smokestacks pushing out sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides, rusty metal drums leaking orange liquid, or the endless repetition of housing in suburban development.
Most do not think about attitudes and cultures that insulate people from the natural world. Yet, that might just be the biggest threat. Consumption without context, a lack of understanding of pollution, a distant natural world, and apathy all lead up to some serious environmental degradation.
Suburbia is grounded in consumption, often without context. They go to the mall and grocery store and buy things. The trash man comes by on Wednesday and takes away what they dont want. The people there have no idea where things came from, what technologies are behind it, and what the real costs of their actions are.
The landfill is well hidden from view. The methane from the dump and the landfill can not be smelled to the user. The factory in India spewing out toxic chemicals simply does not exist. Pollution does exist in suburbia from car emissions, phenalates from vinyl, and lawn pesticides, but it takes a different context from reality.
People in suburbia drive to work in an air conditioned sport-utility vehicle. They live and work in air conditioned vehicles that seal out natural air. Nature is little more then a place for camping. It certainly is not a place for living or making a life out of. If nature is anything in such a world it is always thoroughly controlled and regulated.
Life is suburbia is good, maybe too good. It breeds contempt and apathy. When life is so good, why challenge our status quo to protect some abstract environment so far away? Suburbs are non-political except for the occasional fight over grandpas fence, or parking. Real issues seem not ever to rise to interest.
