Barefoot isn’t a fan of Elon Musk or his tech than can aid coersive control

Barefoot Investor is not a fan of Elon Musk and the way some of his Tesla tech is being used is yet another reason to hate him.

Today I’m going to tell you about the time I crushed my eight-year-old’s dream … on purpose.

It all began when I gave him a very expensive present:

I cordoned off a 20-acre paddock on the farm, and gave it to him. Yet this was no regular paddock, it had lush rye grass, a large dam, and brand-new fences. It was sheep heaven!

And then, to start him off in his little business, I loaned him 20 ewes and one extremely happy daddy ram. (My aim was to teach him financial education and sex education all rolled into one.)

Now my son has never walked past a five cent piece that he hasn’t bent over and picked up. And so it didn’t take long for him to come up with what he thought was a pearler of a way of growing his business:

“Dad, each year, I’ll take some of the money I make from selling the lambs and buy five more sheep”, he said enthusiastically, already mentally counting the money he’d be making.

Talk about compound interest!

Let’s think of the sheep!

And so, around the family dinner table, it was time for me … to burst his bubble.

Here’s the conversation we had:

“OK, mate, let’s cast our minds forward five years.

“You’ve done really well. Each year you make more money than the last, even accounting for buying more sheep. Your business is growing, and you’re a success!

“Now let’s take a walk out to your paddock.

“There are now double the number of sheep crammed in. It looks like a bowling green – there’s not a blade of grass in the entire paddock. It’s all been eaten down. The dam is now a puddle. It’s been drunk dry. Worse, your sheep are dirty and they … stink.

“Why?

“Because there are so many of them packed in, they’re forced to stand and sleep in their wee and poo.

“So you’re doing really well, mate … but what about the lives of your sheep?”

Silence.

On a broader level, this ‘growth at any cost’ mentality is what permeates much of modern-day politics.

Our politicians like to crow about how we’re the ‘lucky country’ that hasn’t had a recession for a record-breaking 34 years. Yet we’ve largely achieved it by bringing more people into our paddock.

Rental crisis: Would-be tenants line up to inspect a home in New Farm, Brisbane. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Please don’t get me wrong: I am not anti-immigration, and I am absolutely not xenophobic. What I am questioning is the unrelenting, unconstrained goal of ‘economic growth’.

Now at this point you’re probably thinking: “Old Barefoot has finally stopped pretending and is now chowing down a Chiko Roll at Pauline Hanson’s fish’n’chip shop.”

Please explain?

Look, the dude who created the definition of a recession (‘two quarters of declining economic growth’) pleaded for us not to use it as a yardstick for growth.

Yet we do.

So let’s take a look at how all this manufactured growth affects housing.

The rental market in this country is fundamentally broken. “Rental affordability is officially the worst on record”, according to a report last week from REA Group.

The report found that there are “almost zero rental properties that are considered affordable for the lowest-income 30% of households”.

So, a decent question to ask our politicians would be:

“Why are we currently bringing in 2000 new migrants a day – 659,800 in the last year – when the rental market is in crisis?”

Yes, there’s more to solving the property crisis than immigration: there’s the tax breaks that favour investors, a genuine lack of supply, and more social housing that needs to be built. Yet the fact remains that, as it stands, overseas arrivals are outpacing the construction of new homes at a rate of almost four to one.

Bah! Let’s think of the sheep!

Tread Your Own Path!

Yet Another Reason to Hate Elon Musk

Hi Scott,

Yep, the car privacy issue is a big one, and you know who else it benefits? Abusers. My mum has been trapped in a controlling marriage for a number of years, and the abuser recently forced her to swap her VW for a Tesla.

Basically a giant camera on wheels. He tracks where she goes, reviews the Tesla security footage, and can even see how many doors have been opened throughout the day.

We have been trying everything to help her get out, and now she doesn’t even have the privacy of a car when she does pull the trigger to leave.

So far Tesla and other manufacturers have resisted all attempts to make them accountable for the abuse they enable – what a bunch of grubs.

Mick

Tesla boss Elon Musk. Picture: Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Hi Mick

I didn’t think it was possible, but you’ve given me yet another reason to hate Elon Musk. The fact is, with so much of our life connected to a device, it’s never been easier to stalk (or abuse) someone.

But that’s all theoretical.

The fact is a woman is killed in this country each week by their partner, and many of the dudes who did it behave like this guy in the lead-up. If it were my mum, I’d give her whatever she needed financially to make the escape. Absolutely anything.

The Man with 100 Homes

Hi Scott,

I read a piece about a property investor who currently owns 100 properties in four Australian states. He stated it was still possible to secure a mortgage with just $25,000 in savings. What do you think?

Steve (a struggling renter)

Technically it’s true that you can buy a joint with $25,000 in savings but there are also risks.

Hi Steve

Technically it’s true that you can buy a joint with $25,000 in savings. Yet it’s also technically true that if you buy a tiny unit in the wrong part of town, and you borrow up to your clacker with second-tier lenders, you may get your arse handed to you in a styrofoam cup if anything goes wrong with the market, or your job, or both.

Book of the Week!

Scott,

One of my favourite parts of reading your newsletter is the book recommendations you do every now and then. I’ve learned a lot in some very unexpected areas because of you. If you had something in your newsletter like ‘book of the week’, I would be the happiest man on Earth. Anyway, keep doing what you’re doing!

Diego

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux is one of Barefoot’s book recommendations this week.

Hey Diego

I have four kids under the age of 10, so my book of the week may end up being Where the Wild Things Are. Speaking of which: crypto. There’s a lot of wild stuff going on, and the book I’ve just re-read is Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux.

He manages to take a complicated subject and explain it in a way that you’ll both understand and get a heap of laughs from. Yet it’s the scams that this investigative reporter writes about that make it such a baller: they’re as jaw-droppingly shocking as they are stupid. Given crypto is having a resurgence, this book should be at the top of your reading list.

DISCLAIMER: Information and opinions provided in this column are general in nature and have been prepared for educational purposes only. Always seek personal financial advice tailored to your specific needs before making financial and investment decisions.

Originally published as Barefoot isn’t a fan of Elon Musk or his tech than can aid coersive control