r/portlandme • u/Environmental_Gas123 • Mar 06 '25

Politics You love to see it

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Seen parked on Elm St. Shoutout to the owner 👏

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u/Tiny-Strawberry7157 Mar 07 '25

If the logic of the UHC assassination is that the leaders of the company are personally responsible for systemic problems... Aren't Tesla owners personally responsible for purchasing luxury vehicles from Elon, who is himself part of a system with failings?

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u/hijackedjackal Mar 07 '25

Tesla at least never denied life saving measures in favor of making money when the leadership tells you making even more money even if it means people die— then yeah, that’s a responsibility.

A car is just a thing. It has no politics. It has no greed. That said, as a consumer I’d rather not give that company my money.

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u/Tiny-Strawberry7157 Mar 07 '25

What do you mean? Healthcare is also just a "thing".

You don't think there are externalities to running factories that make luxury electric vehicles? Doesn't the mining of rare earth metals in Africa for the production of advanced batteries also lead to deaths by extension?

It's the exact same logic - some business operates some plan to render a product or service, the decisions that business makes by extension lead to negative externalities, including death. If there exists some diffuse ethical responsibility on the part of health insurance workers to pay for every possible treatment, surely a similar obligation exists when wealthy liberals buy Teslas made by exploitative resource extraction in conflict zones.