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The core tenet of Muskism, as described at length in Isaacson's bio is around those lines: * question all the rules * when in doubt, slash the rule, and see w
by phtrivier 2y ago
The core tenet of Muskism, as described at length in Isaacson's bio is around those lines:
* question all the rules
* when in doubt, slash the rule, and see what happens
* if it's really bad without it, bring back the rule
* if you don't have to bring back 10% of the rules that you slashed, you haven't slashed enough yet
USA is now entering the phase where everything is getting slashed - following the will of the majority of -Pennsylvania- the people.
At the level of a company, this can bring great efficiencies, and make reusable self-driving cancer-free nuclear-fusion based rockets. Or crypto scams.
Unfortunately, at the level of a Federal Government, it will bring lower taxes, but some of the 10% will end with coffins. And crypto scams.
We'll watch from the other side of the Atlantic how the great libertarianism experiment goes for the USA.
I expect both impressive improvements, and dramatic karmic irony.
- surgical_fire 2y ago> At the level of a company, this can bring great efficiencies, and make reusable self-driving cancer-free nuclear-fusion based rockets. Or crypto scams. This is questionable. There are many times when bureaucracy exists for bureaucracy sake. But many, many times they exist for a reason. Get any sufficiently large company and try to understand its complexity. Simply slashing it is a recipe for disaster. > Unfortunately, at the level of a Federal Government, it will bring lower taxes, but some of the 10% will end with coffins. And crypto scams. This is highly questionable, especially the "lower taxes" part. Governments are not very keen on reducing revenue, more likely they will only direct the surplus by cutting off services to other things - in the case of US, I wouldn't be surprised if they just increase spending in military, for example. Those sleasy and juicy defence contracts need funding, you know.
- D13Fd 2y agoThere is essentially no relation to taxes. Everything they are cutting falls into the “Other” category in this chart: https://www.crews.bank/charts/taxes-and-spending https://www.crews.bank/charts/taxes-and-spending Even if they cut 100% of government functions other than entitlements, healthcare, and defense, it would not solve the deficit.
- Ajedi32 2y agoIs DHS "other", or "defense"? Regardless, I think the primary costs created by regulation aren't directly to the government budget, but rather knock-on effects of compliance incurred by the entire nation's economy.
- selectodude 2y agoDHS would fall under “other”.
- kristianbrigman 2y agoAt least officially, the stated goal is to eliminate the deficit, which at least Elon has been warning about lately. If that holds up (and who knows if it will) I wouldn’t expect any taxes to be cut until the budget is close to balanced.
- surgical_fire 2y agoI wonder if I would be happier if I was as naive as a this.
- kristianbrigman 2y agoMaybe, but it’s not like it hasn’t happened before… Clinton (yes, a democrat!) campaigned on balancing the budget, and iirc it actually was for a few years. In his case I don’t think taxes changed much either direction.
- surgical_fire 2y agoOh I was talking specifically about tax cuts because of a more efficient government. Budgets can be balanced, of course. In some contexts it may be harder to do.
- ianburrell 2y agoClinton made tax increase in 1993 with 39.3% top tax rate. It was a big part of the budget balancing that resulted in surplus.
- pjc50 2y agoI expect a lot of noise about it, then an expansion of the deficit for tax cuts, followed by more noise about how evil the deficit is.
- avgDev 2y agoIf we look historically since Nixon, Biden had the smallest deficit growth of 17%. Trump had 34%. https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and-percentage-7371225 https://www.investopedia.com/us-debt-by-president-dollar-and... Republicans do not bring up deficit when they are in power.
- graemep 2y agoSo the opposite of conservatism in the traditional sense which is do not change things?
- kristianbrigman 2y agoMaybe more like radical libertarianism?
- redeux 2y agoMore like basic authoritarianism.
- generalizations 2y agoI think authoritarianism would be adding rules and bureaucrats, not cutting them.
- redeux 2y agoBy cutting, they're centralizing authority at the top. More and different rules will come - some written, many not - but not by the people that were in place before the change.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- insane_dreamer 2y agoNot really. Authoritarianism is more about centralization of power and getting rid of layers that could interfere with the central authority's ability to project power. Lots of rules tend to constrain an authoritarian ruler's ability to act at whim.
- mindslight 2y agoNo, bureaucratic authoritarianism (our current system) does not encompass all authoritarianism. The flavor that has just been set into motion is autocratic authoritarianism, which is actually closer to what most people mean when they just say "authoritarianism" (hence this gutting of bureaucratic that would otherwise slow it down). That perspectives have been able to become so warped as to blissfully ignore the horrors of autocratic authoritarianism really just shows how out of touch voters have become.
- Ajedi32 2y agoBasically this. Most of the commenters here seem to be taking it on faith that these government organizations are necessary and serving a crucial function. But the entire thrust of this election is that the majority of the country doesn't share that level of faith in the federal government. "When in doubt, slash and see what happens" seems like a highly effective, albeit a bit reckless, approach to finding out which agencies are truly needed and which are not.
- phtrivier 2y agoI (sincerely) wish you and your family to not be on the path of one of the people who will rush to profit from the lack of regulation. I preemptively nominate "unexpected knock-on effects" as "periphrase of the year" for 2025 ;)
- generalizations 2y ago> following the will of the majority of -Pennsylvania- the people. Or more specifically, the Amish...almost poetic.
- phtrivier 2y agoKidding aside, and sorry if it sounds silly, but... do Amish people usually vote a lot ?
- generalizations 2y agoNot that I know of, but they did this time - IIRC, the Biden administration feds raided one of their dairy farms & that was their motivation to vote en masse for Trump.
- red-iron-pine 2y agodid we mention crypto scams?
- CamperBob2 2y agoWe'll watch from the other side of the Atlantic how the great libertarianism experiment goes for the USA. Public service announcement: libertarians aren't the ones who want to shrink government enough to fit through your bedroom door. Those would be the Republicans, who are now in power. They are classified in the opposite camp (authoritarians).
- silexia 2y agoHow is a small government authoritarian? By nature, it is the opposite... You have freedoms to do as you please without government interference.