News satire publication The Babylon Bee recently sat down for an interview with Elon Musk in Tesla’s headquarters of Austin, Texas.
Musk answered several of the “fake news” site’s questions and talked about a number of things, including his (and Tesla’s) move to Texas. In his view, the State of California is “doing everything it can to encourage people to leave.”
It is becoming “increasingly difficult to get things done” in California, said Musk. It “used to be the land of opportunity and now it is… becoming more so the land of overregulation, overlitigation, over-taxation.” Texas, in comparison, has no state income tax whatsoever.
Many of the billionaire’s investments remain in California, though. He also misses his friends, a lot of whom live in his former home State.
During the interview, Musk went into detail about the three pillars of a global transition to sustainability: sustainable energy generation through renewable resources like solar and wind, batteries like the residential and commercial grade ones Tesla makes to store and distribute that energy, and sustainable transport in the form of electric vehicles (EVs) for any job and every job.
According to Musk’s calculations, 100 sq. miles of solar panels could potentially power the entire United States. Essentially, all of the U.S. could run off of the energy generated by a portion of, say, Utah.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also touched on his recent skirmish with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, where he called her “Senator Karen” after she went after him for supposedly not paying taxes and being a “freeloading” billionaire. Once again, he had some choice words for the Senator.
Musk, who was recently named Person of the Year by TIME Magazine, is set to pay over $11 billion USD in taxes this year — the most of any individual in history.
Musk went on to say that building his companies was never about “easy ways to make money” to him. “I think what Tesla’s doing is important to the future, and that’s why I keep doing it.”
Originally, the Musk interview was cut into two parts, with the second half locked behind a paywall for the podcast’s paid subscribers only. But after many people asked for the full interview for free, the podcast obliged.
Check out The Babylon Bee‘s full interview with Elon Musk below — it’s definitely worth a watch:
