Generous subsidies for electrics in the US and other countries helped with that.
Like generous government money funnelled through NASA contracts helped Space X repeat what NASA did in the late 60s/early 70s, slightly improved, 40 years later...
And NASA hasn't used "5% GDP" for 40 years. It has been less than 1% since 1973. Actually scratch that, it has been less than 1% the federal budget, which is much much less than the GDP.
Of course all that 50-years of IP got handed to the "private visionaries" of SpaceX for free, or rather, along with money paid to them...
Can't turn around without bumping into an electric car / reusable rocket company these days.
Butthurt emotions is not the same as lower quality of life (e.g. less access to food, entertainment, travel, housing, health, studies, taking care of kids/relatives, etc).
> In Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk, it is claimed that the Musks' father, Errol Musk, provided them with US$28,000 during this time,[4]:Ch.4 but Elon Musk later denied this.[6] He later clarified that his dad provided around 10% of US$200,000 as part of a later funding round.[7]
I feel like someone who is able to get 90% of their funding round could either convince an existing investor in the round or convince someone else to join the round. This doesn't sound like money to "start Zip2" as you claim.
Also, note that Elon had to shower at a YMCA while starting up Zip2 (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/19/how-elon-musk-founded-zip2-w...). Does that really sound like a "trust fund baby" to you? I feel like a lot of the myths trying to tear down Elon Musk's successes are all sourced from Ashlee Vance's book, which in turn are based on, as I understand it, interviews of Errol Musk himself (the father).
Are there other people who could do it but were not in the right place in the right time or didn't have the right leverage (money, connections, etc.)? Lots. If you took away those parameters, if Elon was just an engineer working for Boeing with just enough money to go on vacation every year, then he probably wouldn't have founded Tesla. He'd be some middle manager somewhere like lots of other smart/capable people.
