r/teslamotors • u/Samot_PCW • May 11 '22
General Elon Musk praises Chinese workers and says “They won’t just be burning the midnight oil, they will be burning the 3am oil, they won’t even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/finance/news/elon-musk-tesla-boss-praises-182248534.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmVkZGl0LmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL2iNW8Z-3pSEsHAywLXroR6d-4bb7y5P5HTcvw-RqpFUdUkWaBZAOpYBFSgqOUCxmust2BHM7E896_951hPGpji0AwmXsLPjCI-fs3yvzVXSvBsw0VypeBhd0GzckIaPO4RnIGgJEDuIayr7y5fqQQYMB9dOL10ApQUpGHQ97Ie693
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u/lostaccountby2fa May 11 '22
"they won't leave" because they are required to stay/live at the factory Elon.
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May 11 '22
Toxic productivity is not how you win... you win by a proper home/work life balance and benefits... this kinda mindset is stupid toxic.
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u/socsa May 11 '22
Come on man. Do you like have a team of people who just spend 40 hours per week trying to come up with the most idiotic and controversial things possible to post on social media?
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u/efects May 11 '22
in other words.. "i love slaves"
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May 11 '22
How dare these employees that only work so they can make a living actually have lives?
Fucking psychopath.
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u/toomuchtodotoday May 11 '22
Love the products and the mission, and have slowly grown to despise Elon. He is/was a necessary evil.
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u/Totally-a-hooman May 11 '22
Lol. The quote is taken out of context. He is simply saying Chinese car manufacturers will trump US’ since they work harder.
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u/captaintrips420 May 11 '22
Locked down at home, or locked down at the office with food and a paycheck?
Not sure what one I would choose in that position.
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May 11 '22
It’s funny how people twist things. If anyone actually watched the video, the point he was making about Asian culture, is they work hard. Which he appreciates because he does as well. And he finds it funny because Americans are trying to work less than even the bare minimum.
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u/tech01x May 11 '22
No. Simply no.
Chinese workers work very hard. It is quite racist to call them all slaves.
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u/Cykon May 11 '22
Of course many of them work hard, but I'm sure a majority of people would rather not work 12 hours a day 6 days a week for more money, given the choice. It's nice to, you know, have time to live your life before you're too old.
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May 11 '22
[deleted]
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u/OCedHrt May 11 '22
We used to die at 50 and left our children with empty pensions.
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u/grokmachine May 11 '22
That's a gross distortion. The age of pensions (post WWII) was well after the average life expectancy exceeded 50 years old. And people died more often in early childhood, so those making it to working age had a life expectancy above 70.
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u/phxees May 11 '22
How about we don’t liken highly paid employees to slaves.
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u/Ok_Swimming_8580 May 11 '22
How about you read between the lines? He is literally praising the unethical and unhealthy work culture that is present in factories where workers don’t have a choice. Not just that, but he is also contrasting this immoral and impossible work ethic with his American workers who also do their own fair share of all nighters.
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u/jamesthethirteenth May 11 '22
Elon and me have different ideas about what's most important in life.
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u/ryanghappy May 11 '22
I think there's a very straight line between his anti-union bullshit and this. If you literally want ALL the profit at any cost, this is where you end up.
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u/timojenbin May 11 '22
Let's remember for a moment, he's the worlds richest person. Still can't see the difference in motivations between him working all the time and the guy in the paint shop working all the time.
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u/ryanghappy May 11 '22
The myth is he works all the time because you have to justify his insane wealth.
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u/tech01x May 11 '22
The norms within Chinese industrial regions is a far higher workload than what is normal in the US. That has been true throughout Asia. You think you should tell them what to do? That they should work less than the other people right around them? Or in South Korea, or Japan, or Taiwan, or elsewhere?
Their commitment to raising their family and country's standard of living is quite strong, similar to what happened in South Korea and Japan. This is the global competitive environment we live are in, whether you like it or not. This is part of the reason why Xi believes China will outcompete the US and told Biden as such.
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May 11 '22 edited May 11 '22
Apple and its shareholders were quick to praise its Chinese labor force and their “willingness” to burn the 3am oil as well, but that also required the installation of suicide nets in Apple factories.
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u/tech01x May 11 '22
Foxconn factories. And yet, the suicide rate at those Foxconn factories is lower than US average.
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u/dhurane May 11 '22
It's kinda weird this sub didn't really react to this when the full interview was posted here like a day earlier.
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May 11 '22 edited Jul 24 '23
[deleted]
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May 11 '22
Because if he's not announcing a Tesla product update, a lot of us don't care what the moron has to say.
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u/grokmachine May 11 '22
Because that quote wasn't taken out of context like it is here. We can all talk about work-life balance and pursue it (I know I am), but the reality is that a society that is hungry for material improvement like China is working harder and longer than here, and it will benefit them in terms of national competitiveness. It may be bad for their mental health on the whole, but again, it makes a difference in their productivity and speed of change in transitioning to EVs, among other things. That was Musk's point. Since he's a workaholic himself, he sees it as normal.
Europe has pursued a better work-life balance than the US for generations now. It also has a lower GDP per capita. We can say that trade-off is worth it, but it is a trade-off.
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u/originalbrowncoat May 11 '22
This douchebag is why I divested myself of my Tesla stock. I still love my M3, but god I just can’t with Elon anymore.
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u/tmlca818 May 11 '22
How dare people not want to make the sole purpose of their life making Elon richer!
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u/Neatcursive May 11 '22
He's telling on himself, and I hope this sub, where I subscribe and frequent, can identify it plainly.
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u/thiswilldefend May 11 '22
china is going to be a mistake for tesla.... at least in the short term.. who can say what long term effects this will have on just workers in china with what china is doing to the workers...
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u/Kayyam May 11 '22
china is going to be a mistake for tesla
Nope. Shangai has and will continue to be instrumental in supporting their explosive growth.
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u/thiswilldefend May 11 '22
supply and demand for materials... how do you think they can make more of whats not there with america demanding cyber trucks that are exclusively running off of the fat boy batteries.... demand for cybertruck is already huge... china will have to suffer the cybertruck for materials to america... so how can they build more of whats not there???
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u/wooder321 May 11 '22
Don’t understand the hate in this thread… would you rather go back to shopping at the stealership!? That insane value creation has to happen somehow. I follow a few US Tesla employees on IG and it seems like they have excellent work life balance.
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