Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

The deep flaw in that math is a concept called the total addressable market.

Based on Hans Rosling's research in the book Factfulness, there are only about 1 billion people on the planet who earn more than $32 a day.

Most of those people live in the United States and Western Europe, and most people in those parts of the world already have access to wired broadband, which is both faster and cheaper than Starlink.

A total addressable market of 1.2 billion users being able to spend over $100 a month solely on internet connectivity is next to impossible.

By merging the two businesses, Musk is using the moat of the rocket business to subsidise the astronomical costs of the AI business, all while asking the public to pay a massive premium for the privilege of owning shares.

Ultimately, SpaceX might be an extraordinary engineering success, but as a public investment, the price you pay for the expected growth will matter.

If the valuation is based on comic book heroic assumptions about capturing a billion customers that either already have better internet access or can't afford to pay for the service, the final frontier for investors might be a very long way down.

all leads us to the question of how Elon Musk actually expects to get that $1.75 trillion price tag.

Think of the new programs that they've wanted to start all this time.

I would much prefer, and I'm ridiculed for it in my book, The Deficit Delusion.

I made the point that whatever you do, do not allow them to reform Social Security or Medicare.

That paradoxically is the barrier to much bigger government precisely because it limits the introduction of new things.

Do you realize how lucky we are? More and more people will be sitting here like us, thanks to data centers in the future, thinking how lucky they are to get up and do what they can't get enough of.

John Tamney from RealClearMarketing.

Anything else that you want to share or is there anything in this conversation you think we missed or something you'd like to plug like a book before we let you go?

Well, I really should.

I love this.

A book called Factfulness by Hans Rosling, which is amazing.

That's one of the best books of all time.

It's almost magical to read.

don't know if I can grab the right book by the cover.

Oh, it's underneath my laptop as I talk to you.

But anyway, Factfulness by Hans Rosling.

Unbelievably insightful book.