Ehh no. Paypal obviously had and still has a huge impact on global ecommerce. SpaceX launched a rocket into space and landed a contract with Nasa. And Tesla set up a factory line producing fully electric cars for (rich) consumers. Elon Musk is without a doubt one of the greatest entrepreneurs ever.
Ehh no 2. I wasn't talking about Paypal, but current companies. And you can hardly attribute Paypal to Elon Musk alone, if anyone individualized it would be Peter Thiel.
Anyways, SpaceX is a huge endeavour as is Tesla motors and green energy project on the side. Most remarkable thing is a close loop those companies feed on each others achievements. That is without dispute. However, there is absolutely no widespread impact from all of this yet apart from PR waves. What it could be, and hopefully will be, is that either those group of companies have a widespread reach or (even more hopefully) those PR waves will incite similar movements across those industries it touches.
As for one of the greatest entrepreneur ever - competition is strong and large. While successful and visionary, his efforts are yet to come to full fruition where he might be among the greats. So far, it's all great business and great prospect. It could land among greatest entrepreneurs ever when/if those companies approach widespread impact of the likes of Ford, Dow, Siemens, Bell, etc...
I'd actually argue it'd be better if SpaceX could gobble up more taxpayer money; they are far more likely to use it for research/development/innovation than either costPlus space contractors or other parts of government that would be allocated the cash saved by cheaper SpaceX launches.
