Summary
Polish Tourism Minister Sławomir Nitras has called for a Tesla boycott following Elon Musk’s remarks urging Germany to “move past” its Nazi history.
Musk’s comments, made during a far-right AfD campaign event, sparked outrage, particularly in Poland, which lost 6 million people in WWII.
The controversy comes ahead of Germany’s February 23 election and just before Musk’s Tesla earnings call.
As a key advisor to Trump, Musk’s stance could impact Tesla’s market position in Europe, where historical remembrance remains a sensitive issue.
The EU should impose a continent-wide ban on Tesla imports (or steep tariffs eh? Why not copy the orange peel) until Tesla offloads Musk - including buying back his shares.
The EU should prepare for a trade war, but it shouldn’t take the first shot.
In this instance, this isn’t a trade war, it’s a war against neo-Nazism. Imposing tarrifs specifically on Tesla wouldn’t be about helping European car manufacturer, it would be about extinguishing Musk’s rhetoric.
It’s too early in the morning for me to look this up but I bet his worth is more than most of the EU member’s GDP.
Sanctions on him individually as well as anything he owns. Bar him from entry, tax the living shit out of any of his properties including any assets he has in the EU.
EU members aren’t third world countries. The poorest in the EU - Romania - has a GDP roughly comparable to Musk’s theoretical worth (I say theoretical because it’s really tied to what Tesla shares are worth. It’ll only be real if he sells them, and he can’t without collapsing the price of the share).
But comparing GDP and someone’s wealth is comparing oranges and apples, because Romania’s GDP happens every year, unlike Musk’s wealth.
And more importantly, the EU is all those countries’ GDP combined. That’s in fact exactly why those countries have united: to have more weight to throw around. Musk is no match for the GDP of the entire European Union, which is roughly $19tn.
Since piracy is a pretty important part of Romanian culture, i dont think it should be excluded when talking about theoretical GDP
The average download speed, according to speedtest.net, is 63.78 MB/s
According to a source i cant find, but looked credible, 68% of computers have pirated software
According to romania-insider.com, 61% of households in Romania own computers and have access to the internet
According to wikipedia, there are 6709224 households in Romania
According to ncesc.com, the average game costs 69.9 USD and takes up 20 GB
According to my calculator app, there are 31536000 seconds in a year
In 31536000 seconds, 2782986 computers could pirate 273320490308 average games, increasing Romanias GDP by 19105102272553 USD
This would put Romania as the country with the third highest GDP, slightly less than Russia
61% of 6709224 is 4092627, not 2782986
Only 68% of those 4092627 would be used to pirate the games