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While I share your opinion on his character, the first part of what you say is also true for almost everyone who wielded the kinds and scales power that was giv

by ben_w 6mo ago

While I share your opinion on his character, the first part of what you say is also true for almost everyone who wielded the kinds and scales power that was given to him via DOGE: Every battleship is a hospital not built, etc.

sumeno 6mo ago
There's a big difference between leaders making carefully considered decisions that have life and death consequences and what doge did.
- ben_w 6mo ago
  Sure, this is why I opened the way I did. I agree Musk's a wrong 'un.
sjsdaiuasgdia 6mo ago
This is a false equivalency, and it minimizes the carelessness and maliciousness of how DOGE operated.
aeternum 6mo ago
> Every battleship is a hospital not built It's sad that this is believed when it's most often the opposite. Especially in this case we have a literal historical example. You'll never guess what Henry Kaiser built before creating Kaiser, the largest set of hospitals in CA.
- ben_w 6mo ago
  I can't imagine why you think that's a good example. The money spent on the ships* could not be double-spent on hospitals. The workers whose manual labour was dedicated to those later ships could not be simultaneously dedicated to more hospitals. The crew of a battleship cannot be simultaneously working in a hospital, the maintenance teams repairing it cannot be simultaneously repairing a hospital. Every resource-management game demonstrates this principle, even if they're all gross simplifications. * Wikipedia says Kaiser's ships were cargo and transport, not battleships, which means they had the potential to be a net positive on the economy. This is better than a battleship, because domestic military gear can't be a net positive: the point is to keep matériel and personnel around to deter enemies, and only use them for training and when enemies aren't deterred.
  - aeternum 6mo ago
    This could be true if labor were ever the bottleneck in construction projects. It almost never is.

by ben_w 6mo ago

sumeno 6mo ago

There's a big difference between leaders making carefully considered decisions that have life and death consequences and what doge did.

ben_w 6mo ago
Sure, this is why I opened the way I did. I agree Musk's a wrong 'un.

sjsdaiuasgdia 6mo ago

This is a false equivalency, and it minimizes the carelessness and maliciousness of how DOGE operated.

aeternum 6mo ago

> Every battleship is a hospital not built It's sad that this is believed when it's most often the opposite. Especially in this case we have a literal historical example. You'll never guess what Henry Kaiser built before creating Kaiser, the largest set of hospitals in CA.

ben_w 6mo ago
I can't imagine why you think that's a good example. The money spent on the ships* could not be double-spent on hospitals. The workers whose manual labour was dedicated to those later ships could not be simultaneously dedicated to more hospitals. The crew of a battleship cannot be simultaneously working in a hospital, the maintenance teams repairing it cannot be simultaneously repairing a hospital. Every resource-management game demonstrates this principle, even if they're all gross simplifications. * Wikipedia says Kaiser's ships were cargo and transport, not battleships, which means they had the potential to be a net positive on the economy. This is better than a battleship, because domestic military gear can't be a net positive: the point is to keep matériel and personnel around to deter enemies, and only use them for training and when enemies aren't deterred.
- aeternum 6mo ago
  This could be true if labor were ever the bottleneck in construction projects. It almost never is.