New Age Robber Baron Upping His Game

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

A robber baron is defined as a person who has become rich through ruthless and unscrupulous business practices — originally with reference to prominent US businessmen in the late 19th century.

Most school aged children learn about the business practices of men like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller.

There are those who will say we have entered a new age of robber barons, only this time their names are Gates, Bezos, and Zuckerberg.

And Musk.

With a net worth of over 155 billion dollars, the man behind Tesla and SpaceX seems to be making a play to buy himself his own, private Space Town, U.S.A.

Earlier in the month, Musk Tweeted he was "creating the city of Starbase, Texas." According to reports, Musk is trying to get the wheels in motion and coordinating with county leaders to incorporate his very own city.

When Musk announced he would be building a launch platform close to Boca Chica beach, local community leaders rejoiced as Musk's people negotiated with the state and county to get all kinds of tax breaks to build his launch pad. 

In exchange, Musk promised a whole laundry list of things designed to make Brownsville and its citizens wealthier. The trickle down effect of all the money and revenue that was supposed to be generated because of the launch facility was supposed to be felt all over South Texas. 

I won't get into all the things Musk promised us — I've already written more than one article about his broken promises. Suffice it to say Musk's shift from launching the rockets he kept in Florida to using us as guinea pigs for his Mars project changed things dramatically for Brownsville.

It also changed things dramatically for the people at Boca Chica Village, a small, quiet unincorporated community Musk originally said would remain undisturbed. SpaceX would eventually try to buy out all the residents as local blogs reported about Musk's master plan to turn Boca Chica Village into apartments and a living complex for SpaceX employees. 

Now Musk is saying he wants his new incorporated town of Starbase, Texas to expand beyond Boca Chica Village.

Coming on the news of his 11th starship prototype crashing and burning at his launch facility, releasing Lord knows how many different types of toxic chemicals into the air, and Musk's snarky Tweet about at least crashing on the right site, Musk put out another Tweet saying he will be donating 20 million dollars to Cameron County schools and 10 million dollars to the city for downtown revitalization.

Looks like Musk is trying to buy himself some goodwill after breaking promise after promise to us. Besides, what's 30 million dollars to a billionaire? 

I understand some people sing Musk's praises, and I truly hope he donates the money to local schools and to the city, but none of those things change the fact he and his company has lied about everything he has promised up until.now. 

It would be nice if Musk would try to become a legitimate part of this community instead of erasing what already exists and replacing it with a new shiny city.

Who knew Boca Chica was for sale for 30 million dollars?

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