Lockdown fallout: Elon Musk moves to Texas

Making official his threat, maverick billionaire Elon Musk
announced on Tuesday he had moved to Texas, leaving California for good, as he had
warned after a spat with local authorities there over his business closure during
the pandemic.

Musk has advocated against total lockdowns in the state,
arguing that only people vulnerable to COVID-19 are the old and those who suffer
co-morbidities.

“Yes, I have moved to Texas,” he told a conference
organized by The Wall Street Journal, AFP reported.  

Musk justified the move by saying he needed to be closer to
two of his biggest projects: the development of rockets by his company SpaceX
in the southern part of the state, and construction of a Tesla automobile plant
near state capital Austin.

California imposed its second lockdown on Monday after the
state registered a rise in COVID-19 cases, marked by a high ICU-bed occupancy
across its regions.

Earlier in the year, Musk had a spat with the local
authorities in the state, which had shuttered one of his auto factories to stem the
rise of COVID-19.  

Musk has now moved to Texas, which has no state income tax,
unlike California, which charges a high tax from its rich.

About California, Musk said the state was like a team which
was winning for so long that it stopped caring.

“If a team has been winning for too long, they do tend to
get a little complacent, a little entitled, and then they don’t win the
championship anymore,” he said.

“California has been winning for a long time… and
they are taking it for granted.”