“When you peel back the layers of whimsical, gauzy tech-bro speak, their ideas can be boiled down to one principle: massive cuts to federal programs that, when deployed elsewhere, have caused calamity.”
TL;DR—Massive inflation and horrendous unemployment that cannot be fixed by tariffs or any other “magic words.”
The problem? Musk and Ramaswamy do NOT understand the complexities of government. They think of it as a business (it is not) and that you can apply (cont)
https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/musk-ramaswamy-austerity-doge-rcna181228
@feloneouscat No, the problem is they WANT horrendous unemployment and widespread poverty.
That makes people desperate, which pushes down wages. That's the end goal: cheap labour. If they could push the price of labour all the way down to zero (see slavery), they would do so in a heartbeat.
But, it will also destroy banks, property values and the value of the dollar. The rich DEPEND on a certain amount of stability.
They want stability (when it comes to their own money and investments) but instability when it comes to others.
The problem is you can’t do both.
I agree, Musk and many others would be the first to argue slavery is good. As long as they were the slaveholders.
@feloneouscat Most of the rich want stability.
The likes of Musk and Ramaswamy, OTOH, are extremist lunatics who would happily burn everything else to the ground to amplify inequality and cement their own wealth/power - they're indifferent to the risks, as well as completely unfazed by the tremendous human & societal costs.
I suspect many of the rich staunchly oppose much of what Musk/Ramaswamy seek to do, but the stability they love so much has created a great deal of inertia opposing action.
“The likes of Musk and Ramaswamy, OTOH, are extremist lunatics who would happily burn everything else to the ground”
Possibly—but I tend to believe stupidity is a far more powerful force with businessmen.
They don’t understand what would happen until too late.
They aren’t the brains—they HIRE brains and then take credit.
At times it’s hard to tell the difference between malice and stupidity. Like cutting Fed workers: do they know it will crater the economy? If they don’t, stupidity, but if they do, malice…
The interchangeability of the two makes one wonder about the true foundation of the universe.
@feloneouscat I've long attributed a great deal of stupidity to businessmen - frankly, I view them as little more than parasites and bottom-feeders, with a corresponding lack of intelligence.
However, in the case of Musk and Ramaswamy, I think the usual stupidity has been combined with a bit more malice than usual.